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OSTEOPATHY 

The Science of Healing 
by Adjustment 



FIFTH EDITION 







PERCY H. WOOD ALL, M. D., D. O. 






JUL 2 018 



PREFACE 

There is much misinformation concerning 
Osteopathy. It has been confused in the public 
mind with every conceivable form of treatment. An 
effort is here made to give an authoritative, simple, 
non-technical statement of its principles; to show 
that they are original, distinctive and unique, and 
to explain their application to the treatment of 
diseases. 

As a graduate and former practitioner of medi- 
cine, I have endeavored to present the claims of 
Osteopathy to recognition as a school of healing, 
conservatively and fairly. We ask an unprejudiced 
judgment. 

Indebtedness is acknowledged to Macfie's "The 
Romance of Medicine," Gorton's "The History 
of Medicine," Wilder's "History of Medicine," 
Boerick and Anshutz's "The Elements of Homoeo- 
pathic Theory, Materia Medica, Practice and 
Pharmacy," Deason's "Physiology — General and 
Osteopathic." Especial thanks are due to Dr. F. P. 
Millard. 

Psrcy H. Woodau,, M. D., D. O. 



PUBLISHED BY 

AMERICAN OSTEOPATHIC ASSOCIATION 

AT ORANGE, N. J. 



INTRODUCTORY 
The Evolution of the Healing Art 

The practice of the Healing Art was born 
of man's necessity, and every age, in varying 
degree, has claimed its ministrations. It is 
as old as human nature and doubtless 
originated from man's instinctive efforts to 
relieve his own suffering. Skulls from the 
neolithic period with unmistakable evidences 
of trepination afford abundant proof that 
this severe operation was attempted as 
remotelv as the earlv stone age. 

Although legendary history relates that 
centuries before the culmination of Egyptian 
civilization, medicine was crudely cultivated 
by certain Chinese kings, yet medicine as an 
Art and Science seems most probably to have 
originated with the Egyptians. King Athosis 
who lived more than 6,000 years ago, is said 
not only to have acquired an elaborate knowl- 
edge of medicine but to have written books on 
anatomy. 

The earliest Egyptian medical practices 
were religious and consisted mainly of incan- 
tations. The later evolution of medical treat- 
ment made use of drugs and herbs, many of 
which are in use today. Castor oil, squills, 
turpentine, opium, and lead, trace the ances- 



Osteopathy, the Science 

try of their usage to the Egyptian prognos- 
tics. Free use was made of hair dyes, hair 
restorers, cosmetics, and even opiated sooth- 
ing syrups. Five thousand years before 
Christ dentists filled teeth with gold and 
surgeons performed difficult operations, 
with instruments very similar to those in 
present-day usage. They possessed some 
knowledge of the circulation of the blood; 
specialists treated all the different organs 
and diseases ; physicians wrote prescriptions 
after the manner of the present century. Nor 
were they exempt from numerous pre- 
tenders and empirics, the antecedents of our 
modern quacks. It was from the Egyptians 
that Moses doubtless received his marvelous 
knowledge of hygiene and sanitation, the 
practice of which entitled him to rank as one 
of the greatest physicians of history. 

But most human good has an evangelical, 
or at least mercantile, desire for self-propa- 
gation, and medicine soon made its way from 
Egypt into Greece. Aesculapius, the Greek 
god of medicine, is attributed to the 
thirteenth century before Christ. His two 
sons, Machaon and Podilarius, were said by 
Homer to have been present at the seige of 
Troy, and Podilarius is said to have been the 
first physician to practice bleeding. Hygeia, 
the beautiful daughter of Aesculapius, is the 
first woman physician recorded among the 
Greeks. While at this time there were many 



of Healing by Adjustment 

superstitious and ridiculous practices, there 
were also practices of undoubted and per- 
manent value, gymnastics, massage, poultic- 
ing, counter-irritation, and baths. 

Although the art of medicine doubtless 
originated in the valley of the Nile, the land 
of mystery and silence, it is to ancient Greece, 
"the land of life and light, of liberty, of 
heroism, of creative art, industry and litera- 
ture, of lovers of truth and beauty, ' ' that we 
must look for the first flush of the dawn of 
modern medical thought. 

To the celebrated Hippocrates, the "father 
of medicine,' ' a lineal descendant of Aescula- 
pius, eighteen generations removed, this 
development must be attributed. Medicine 
and medical heroes had slumbered for nearly 
a thousand years when Hippocrates appear- 
ed. He was the first to catch a glimpse of the 
part which that mysterious force called 
"Nature/ ' plays in the process of cure, and 
upon this realization that "Nature cures" he 
laid the foundation of modern medical 
thought and teaching. Hippocrates was a 
man of elastic and expansive mind, gifted 
with marvelously accurate and discriminating 
powers of observation and description. Some 
of his descriptions of symptoms and diseases 
have never been improved upon. His char- 
acter and ideals were of the highest and 
after more than two thousand years he 
remains the ideal physician. Yet his renown 

7 



Osteopathy, the Science 

was greater as a surgeon than as a physician. 

Following in the wake of Hippocrates and 
benefiting by his blazing of the trail, comes 
an array of lesser lights ushering in events 
important and pregnant with lasting influence 
upon the evolution of the Healing Art. From 
the mass of determining factors time permits 
us to select only the most important. 

Many noted physicians of antiquity have 
been women. One of the most distinguished 
was at the same time one of the most 
infamous, Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. 
History ascribes to her the authorship of 
treatises upon the Diseases of Women, but as 
these manuscripts have been destroyed their 
professional value is unknown. 

As a great leader in medical thought, 
chronologically, Galen next assumes promin- 
ence. Although a Greek by birth, and edu- 
cated in Alexandria, he made Eome, as the 
center of the civilized world, the theatre of his 
activities. He was the first to describe the 
production of the voice, the function of the 
kidneys, and to determine many significant 
facts relative to the nervous system. He 
remained the oracle of the medical profession 
for more than fourteen hundred years, and 
woe to any man who for any reason, dared to 
dispute his teachings. 

After the death of Galen, which occurred 
about 200 A. D., the progress of medicine 
languished for many centuries. The dark 

8 



of Healing by Adjustment 

ages were already beginning to cast their 
sinister shadow over the world. Culture and 
learning, universally, were in a sad state. 
Greece was no more, or at best a memory; 
Eome was unfavorable to the development 
and growth of science, and Alexandria was 
declining. In 638 the Mohammedans took 
Alexandria and burned the greater part of its 
magnificent library. The avowed reason was 
that if its books agreed with the Koran they 
were useless and if they disagreed therewith, 
they were wicked. Fortunately some of its 
medical works fell into appreciative hands 
and the Arabians for several hundred years 
kept alive the spark of medical knowledge. 
Although they were first to describe small- 
pox and measles, the Arabians added but 
little to the evolution of the Healing Art. 
They merely kept alive what had been 
attained. In the early part of the ninth 
century, at Salerno, Italy, was established the 
first medical college in Europe. During the 
eleventh century, Arabia suffered a period of 
decline and the church became the nursery of 
learning, though there was but little science 
and less effort at scientific discovery. 
Diseases were generally ascribed to astral 
influences. In the fourteenth century, the 
study of anatomy was revived. Anatomical 
illustrations of dissections were now made 
upon metal or wooden plates from which 
copies could be made upon the printing press. 

9 



Osteopathy, the Science 

A general ide'a' of the status of medical knowl- 
edge of the fifteenth century is afforded in the 
fact that the plague which visited Europe at 
this time was variously ascribed by the 
medical profession to " filthy habitations and 
habits, gross errors of diet, impure water — 
and the Jews, a perpetual plague to 
Christians. ' ' The stars were still held by 
the highest authority to be responsible for 
much sickness. 

The sixteenth century was an age of con- 
siderable progress. Two very remarkable 
men appear during this century, Paracelsus 
and Vesalius, who left many positive im- 
pressions upon the development of medicine. 
Paracelsus dared to dispute the teachings of 
the medical fathers and to use the dialect of 
the common people in his lectures. For this 
offense of "profaning and vulgarizing the 
medical art by making its mysteries known to 
the laity," and for his independence in oppos- 
ing the fallacies of the profession he was 
denounced and persecuted and finally treach- 
erously murdered by assassins. The deed is 
said to have been instigated by his jealous 
colleagues. Vesalius, in his zeal for dissect- 
ing material, is said to have fought with 
hungry dogs for bones in the cemeteries of 
Paris, and to have stolen a corpse from a 
gibbet. He wrote a book on anatomy as he 
had seen it with his own eyes. As the book 
was a contradiction of the accepted writings 

10 



of Healing by Adjustment 

of Galen, Vesalius met everywhere with the 
most bitter, bigoted and unrelenting opposi- 
tion. 

During this period the surgeons were the 
barbers, the horse-shoers and even the 
cobblers and tinkers. Surgical operations 
were crude, cruel and but little more to be 
desired than death. A French barber- 
surgeon, Ambrose Pare 7 , introduced the use 
of soothing dressings for wounds, to displace 
the former practice of pouring them full of 
boiling oil. He also began to tie arteries 
after amputations, instead of plunging the 
stump into boiling pitch. Yet +hese humane 
and common sense innovations brought upon 
him the bitter hatred of his professional 
brethren, although they greatly increased his 
popularity with the laity. 

We now approach one of the most illus- 
trious names and one of the most important 
discoveries in the annals of medicine, Wil- 
liam Harvey, and his discovery of the true 
cause and nature of the circulation of the 
blood. Notwithstanding that in the earliest 
Egyptian medical documents there is a clear 
reference to a movement of the blood to and 
from the heart, and that Herophilus, in the 
third century B. C, by dissection of the living 
human subject knew of the circulation of the 
blood, the elasticity of the arteries and the 
nature of the pulse, yet the discovery of the 
circulation of the blood as we now know it is 

11 



Osteopathy, the Science 

accredited to Harvey. Although he wrote 
logically, learnedly and scientifically and his 
arguments were indisputable, Hume says that 
"no physician over forty years of age ever 
accepted Harvey's theory.' ' It is also said 
of him, "he fell mightily in his practice — and 
all the physitians were against his opinion 
and envied him." 

In the year 1661, the microscope, which in 
the medical world is now indispensable, was 
discovered by Malpighi. This discovery 
brought upon him the severe disapproval of 
his associates who declared that "the study 
of microscopic anatomy was averse to the 
true interests of medical practice." 

Edward Jenner, the next illustrious 
pioneer, is honored by "regular" medicine 
as the one who introduced and established 
vaccination against small-pox. They have 
now made vaccination compulsory wherever 
they can, but in the beginning they heaped 
upon the practice all the abuse and ridicule 
possible. They declared that it was not only 
useless but harmful, and that vaccinated chil- 
dren "became cow-visaged and bellowed like 
bulls." 

In the year 1800, with the discovery of 
nitrous oxide or laughing gas and its power 
to produce insensibility to pain, came the 
dawn of a new era in surgery. The culmina- 
tion of the use came about in 1844. Ether 
was used the next year, and chloroform the 

12 



of Healing by Adjustment 

year following. The use of anaesthetics was 
strongly opposed at first by the clergy, the 
laity, and by many physicians. The first use 
of anaesthetics, it must be remembered, how- 
ever, was by no means so modern as this, for 
the surgeons of antiquity used drugs to pro- 
duce sleep during operations. 

The perfection of the compound microscope 
in 1830, opened up to us the universe of cells 
and germs. Of the composition of the body 
we hitherto had known comparatively 
nothing. A prominent authority in the 
middle of the eighteenth century crudely said, 
"our bodies are gradually built up of a slimy 
and gelatinous fluid.' ' The microscope 
demonstrated that our bodies are common- 
wealths of cells, and instead of being a little 
less than the angels we were shown to be but 
a step higher than God's lowest creatures. 
We may say to the worm, "thou art my 
brother and my sister," and to the tubercle 
bacillus, "thou art my brother Cain." We 
are not such stuff as dreams are made of, but 
are of the same physical stuff as the vilest 
creeping things. The beauty and the beast, 
the rose and the reptile, the cabbage and the 
king, the microbe and the man, the fool and 
the philosopher, are of the same identical 
material, protoplasm. 

Glimpses of the germ theory appeared in 
remote times. Tarentius Rusticus wrote two 
thousand years ago, "if there are any marshy 

13 



Osteopathy, the Science 

places, little animals multiply which the eye 
cannot discern, but which enter the body with 
the breath through the nose and mouth and 
cause grave diseases.' ' The first actual 
bacteria were seen and described by Leeuwen- 
hock in 1675. The first bacterium of human 
disease was not discovered until 1863, when 
Davaine and Eaver discovered the bacterium 
that causes Anthrax. The names of Pasteur, 
Lister, Koch and a number of others are 
prominent in connection with the develop- 
ment of the germ theory of disease to its 
present day acceptance. 

We have flattered ourselves that the part 
played by the mosquito in the transmission 
of diseases is of recent discovery. This, like 
many other things which we consider modern, 
is but another exemplification of theories pro- 
posed and all but proved in ages gone by. 
In a Sanskrit work of fourteen hundred years 
ago, is the statement that the bite of a certain 
variety of mosquito is followed by "fever, 
pain in the limbs, goose-skin, vomiting, 
shivering and an intense feeling of cold." 
Even the uninitiated will recognize the malar- 
ial chill from this description. 

Any account of the development of medical 
theory and practice must be accounted 
incomplete which neglects the modern trend 
toward mental therapeutics. In the early 
seventies, Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy developed 
a religious and therapeutic movement, called 

14 



of Healing by Adjustment 

Christian Science. This movement has 
presented an important element in the evolu- 
tion of the Healing Art in that it has caused 
the medical profession to devote more atten- 
tion to the mental and psychic causes and 
features of diseases. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
Samuel Hahnemann instituted a new method 
of administering drugs, called by him 
Homeopathy. Homeopathy has greatly 
modified medical practice and has paved the 
way for what is in fact, drugless healing. 

Finally in 1874, Dr. A. T. Still, by announc- 
ing that all drugs and chemicals necessary 
to maintain health are manufactured by the 
body in its own laboratories, gave to the 
world osteopathy, the science of Healing by 
Adjustment, a true system of natural healing. 
"We are led up to this system of Healing by 
Adjustment by the foregoing brief recitation 
of the steps in the evolution of medicine. 



15 



OSTEOPATHY 

The Science of Healing 
by Adjustment 



OSTEOPATHY 
The Science of Healing by Adjustment 

Adjustment was doubtless one of the 
earliest methods of healing practiced by 
primitive man. In encounters with wild 
beasts, in conflicts with his fellow man, and 
in the accidents incident to his precarious 
existence, it was natural that he should have 
received fractures of his bones and disloca- 
tions of his joints. His dawning reason 
taught him that these should be set, that is, 
adjusted. So adjustment can properly claim 
first place in the beginning of the healing art. 

These first efforts were necessarily crude 
because a clear knowledge of the anatomy or 
structure of the body was lacking. As knowl- 
edge and skill increased, manipulative 
surgery was born. Its function is to deal 
with the adjustment of the gross derange- 
ments of the large joints, neglecting the minor 
and minute irregularities of these large joints 
and practically all derangements of the small 
joints. 

The importance of these minute irregulari- 
ties in structure was for ages unappreciated. 
In the early seventies an "old school" 
physician, for many years a drug practi- 

19 



Osteopathy, the Science 

tioner, had lost his last ounce of faith in the 
therapeutics of drugs. 

The hand of death had struck three of 
his children, after the best obtainable medical 
skill had been exhausted. When he found drugs 
powerless in curing disease, his grief, his 
despair and his helplessness impelled him to 
seek a more rational method of treatment. 
He conceived the idea that the human body 
was a living mechanism, subject like any 
other machine to mechanical derangement of 
its parts and that these derangements, how- 
ever minute, interfered with the nerve paths 
and channels through which the vital fluids 
circulate. This hindered perfect action of 
the body and either caused or invited disease. 
He further contended that the human body 
was endowed by Nature with facilities within 
itself for manufacturing all the chemicals 
and drugs necessary for its growth and repair 
and for the maintenance of health. He 
reasoned along this line for several years, 
verifying his theories and perfecting his 
results until he had fully developed a new 
system of treating diseases. This "old 
school" physician was Dr. A. T. Still. He 
tells the story of his discovery as follows : 

I was born and raised to respect and confide in the 
remedial power of drugs, but after many years of prac- 
tice in close conformity to the dictations of the very best 
medical authors and in consultation with representatives 
of the various schools, I failed to get from drugs the 
results hoped for and I was face to face with the evi- 

20 



of Healing by Adjustment 

dence that medication was not only untrustworthy but 
was dangerous. 

The mechanical principles on which osteopathy is 
based are as old as the universe. I discovered them 
while I was in Kansas. You can call this discovery 
accidental or purely philosophical. I was in the practice 
of medicine and had been for several years. I treated 
my patients as other doctors did. A part of them got 
well and a part died. Others, both old and young, got 
sick and got well without the assistance of the medical 
doctor. 

As I was an educated engineer of five years school- 
ing I began to look at the human framework as a 
machine and to examine all its parts to see if I could find 
any variation from the truly normal among its journals, 
belts, pulleys and escape pipes. I began to experiment 
with man's body as a master mechanic would when he 
had in his charge any machinery which needed to be 
kept perfectly adjusted and in line in order to get perfect 
work. I worked along patiently, faithfully and hope- 
fully, finding out that the human body was just as liable 
to strains and variations as a steam engine, and that 
after correcting the strains and variations health was 
sure to follow. I was many years philosophizing, com- 
paring and noticing results which followed taking off 
strains and pressure. I was surprised to see that fever, 
congestion and all irregularities gave way, health 
returned and the results were good and satisfactory. 

I found mechanical causes for disordered functioning, 
or poor work of the head, neck, thorax, abdomen, pelvis 
or extremities. I adjusted the bony framework and 
secured such good results that I was encouraged to keep 
on and on until now I can truthfully say that I am 
satisfied that osteopathy is the natural way by which all 
the diseases to which the human body is heir can be 
relieved, and a large majority of them cured. 

Osteopathy is based upon the perfection of Nature's 
work. When all parts of the body are in line we have 

21 



Osteopathy, the Science 

health. When they are not the effect Is disease. When 
the parts are readjusted, diseases give place to health. 
The work of the osteopath is to ADJUST the body from 
the abnormal to the normal; then the abnormal condi- 
tion gives place to the normal and health is the result 
of the normal condition. 

Man cannot add anything to Nature's perfect work 
nor improve the functioning of the normal body. Disease 
is an effect only, and a positive proof that a belt is off, 
a journal bent, or a cog broken or caught. Man's power 
to cure is good as far as he has a knowledge of the right 
or normal position and so far as he has the skill to 
adjust the bones, muscles and ligaments and give free- 
dom to nerves, blood, secretions and excretions and no 
farther. 

Such is the simple story of the discovery 
of the fundamental principles involved in the 
science of osteopathy. It shows unmistak- 
ably that the peculiar, the distinctive, the 
essential feature of osteopathy is adjustment, 
adjustment of the structures of the human 
body. The purpose of an osteopathic exam- 
ination is to find the maladjustment that is 
interfering with a free play of Nature's 
forces. The object of an osteopathic treat- 
ment is to readjust the deranged parts or 
conditions so that the natural state of health 
may be regained. In addition to adjust- 
ing body structure, osteopathy uses all the 
natural common-sense measures common to 
all schools, but drugs as remedies have no 
place in its practice. The essentials for its 
successful practice are an intimate knowledge 
of the structure and function of every part of 

22 



of Healing by Adjustment 

the human body, as well as an insight into all 
that pertains to human diseases. 

Yet, while manipulations are a necessary 
part of osteopathy they are relatively of 
minor importance. The matter of prime im- 
portance is the ability to locate the mal- 
adjusted part and to interpret its effects. 
To do this requires the most comprehensive 
knowledge of all parts of the body and their 
respective uses, and of the evidences of their 
derangement. Without this knowledge of 
structure, function, and disorder, no degree 
of manipulative skill can make one an 
osteopathic physician. Merely to be able to 
manipulate no more makes an osteopath than 
the ability to cut makes a surgeon. A knowl- 
edge of when, for what, and how to cut is no 
more necessary to surgery than a recognition 
of when, for what and how to manipulate is 
requisite to osteopathy. 

The osteopathic concept is that while man 
is a most complex and delicate mechanism, 
yet he is a being of life and feeling, vastly 
more than an inanimate machine; and that 
there are agencies other than maladjustments 
within his own body that affect his health. 
It appreciates the part that heredity, environ- 
ment, habit, thought, over-use and abuse of 
organs and agencies, play in matters of health 
and disease. To the correction of these 
osteopathy devotes as much attention as does 
any other school of practice. It approves 

23 



Osteopathy, the Science 

and makes use of all natural means of healing 
of demonstrated value, and enjoins the 
correct observance of all laws of diet, 
hygiene, sanitation and psychology; in fact, 
all principles in accord with the natural laws 
of the human body are inculcated by this 
comprehensive science. 

Osteopathy has been builded upon the 
established facts of science. It is not 
iconoclastic in its nature, but is constructive. 
It would not, if it could, refute a single 
established fact. It aims at the unfoldment 
of all truth in its relation to the cure of 
diseases. Its mission is to weld into one 
harmonious whole all that has been proved 
worthy in the healing art. It is willing to 
pay homage to and accept the teachings of all 
who from the earliest times to the present day 
have done aught to relieve human suffering. 
It demands that all theories be tried by the 
standard of truth and efficiency and that all 
failing to stand this test be rejected. The 
unrelenting law of evolution should be ap- 
plied where the unfit and non-utilitarian the- 
ories must fail, and where the "workable," 
as William James says, survive and have 
survival value. 

Osteopathy does honor to the heroes of 
preventive medicine who have demonstrated 
the role of the mosquito in malaria and yellow 
fever, and it has the profoundest respect for 
those great sanitarians who have changed 

24 



of Healing by Adjustment 

Havana from a plague spot to a city of health 
and beauty, and have made Panama habitable 
and wholesome. It is grateful to those 
geniuses of surgery who by their skill and 
conservatism have added length of days to 
man's life, and to those physiological 
chemists who have evolved a rational and 
helpful system of diet. It voices apprecia- 
tion of the great minds that have mined into 
the realms of thought and have revealed the 
psycho-physiological inter-relation of mind 
and body. It appreciates the work of all 
these coadjutors; it makes use of their 
discoveries and recognizes them as co- 
laborers in the advancement of the true art 
and science of healing. 

It remained, however, for Dr. A. T. Still to 
add to the verities of anatomy the demon- 
strated truths of physiology and to these the 
immutable laws of mechanics, and from all 
these to formulate a system of treatment 
based upon the known laws of the sciences, 
and a svstem of treatment that shall endure 
as long as man has infirmities. This system 
has for its aim the extinction of disease and 
adds to all other helpful measures the one 
neglected, though most important and needful 
feature, — the care of the structure of the 
individual. All else may be perfect, but if 
this perfection of structure be lacking, 
disease results. Osteopathy teaches that 
structure is paramount in matters of health ; 

25 



Osteopathy, the Science 

and while it does not deny the influence of the 
mind it does insist npon the greater impor- 
tance of the physical. Whatever may be the 
state of mind, whenever nerve impulses are 
perverted, or the blood stream diverted, or 
the structure disordered, the function of the 
part is necessarily deranged. 

Osteopathy would acquaint man with the 
dignity, the majesty and the divinity of the 
human body, the perfection and self- 
sufficiency of God's own handiwork. It 
teaches that this "temple of the Spirit" is no 
gross and inert mass of matter, but an ever- 
growing, ever-expanding, ever-developing 
prototype of its Maker, endowed with 
agencies that tend to heal and to perfect. 

A writer, in a recent medical journal, says : 
"Year after year the doctors have gone on 
treating symptoms. The study of causes and 
the knowledge of therapeutics is a lost art. 
We have been practicing medicine along the 
lines of palliation." Osteopathy reverses 
this disparaging practice and demands a 
search for and a removal of deleterious 
causes as its unchanging rule. 

Osteopathy flatly repudiates that age-long 
fallacy that you must poison a sick man 
in order to make him well. It cannot give 
credence or sanction to internal administra- 
tion of drugs for the cure of diseases. It 
places confidence in the use of drugs as 
anaesthetics, as antiseptics and as antidotes in 

26 



of Healing by Adjustment 

poisoning, but the administration of them 
internally for purposes of cure is not only 
useless but positively harmful. Those sub- 
stances which cannot be appropriated by the 
body as food can add nothing to bodily 
strength, vitality or resistance. Even though 
remedies are not active poisons { which they 
usually are) they must be eliminated from the 
body. During disease the eliminating organs 
are already overworked, and to impose upon 
them at such time an additional burden is 
unnecessary and it may be permanently 
hurtful. 

I The administration of drugs in disease 
continues as a remnant of the remote past 
when diseases were thought to be due to 
demoniac possession, and when the greatest 
possible disturbance in the sick man's body 
was deemed the best means of ridding the 
patient of the offending devil. At first the 
most disgusting and nauseating remedies 
were used. The laity, after centuries of 
suffering, revolted at these, and now more 
palatable and agreeable compounds are 
administered. Many laymen, and no incon- 
siderable number of doctors, still think that a 
remedy must make the patient very sick in 
order to make him ultimately well. This 
conception still pays tribute to the outworn 
proposition that it requires one last great 
upheaval to overthrow the disease, or rather 
cast out the devil. No one can deny that 

27 



Osteopathy, the Science 

drugs do modify symptoms or have in many 
cases afforded relief, but there is always a 
reaction, a "kick" at the expense of the 
general vitality. The habits they have 
caused, the wrecks they have made, more than 
offset all the good they have done. Osteo- 
pathy offers a safer, a saner, a more effective, 
and a better way. 

Osteopathy recognizes surgery as a science, 
and one that in the last few years has made 
wonderful progress. When properly em- 
ployed, surgery is truly osteopathic in its 
application, and it is taught in the colleges as 
a part of the system of osteopathy. Osteo- 
pathy is, however, opposed to the present 
reckless and unnecessary tendency toward 
operations, for by its treatment many so- 
called surgical cases are cured and many 
operations are prevented. If osteopathy 
were given first trial, the necessity for opera- 
tions would be greatly reduced. Surgery 
might be employed after osteopathy had 
failed, if it should fail, but from a surgical 
operation there is no recourse. From the 
surety of osteopathy we should turn to pre- 
carious surgery only as a last resort. 

Osteopathy accepts the germ theory of 
diseases, to a qualified extent. It accepts the 
dictum of the other schools of healing, 
"germs cannot live in healthy tissues." 
While germs may determine the nature of the 
disease, yet there must be and is, prior to the 

28 



of Healing by Adjustment 

germ infection, some agency or first cause 
that by interference with the normal blood 
and nerve supply to the affected part has so 
reduced its vitality or resistance as to make it 
susceptible to germ invasion. Germs are 
everywhere. Earth, air, and water are full 
of them. Our bodies are havens and hot beds 
for them. To escape them is impossible and 
if it were not for the natural defences of the 
body we could not survive an hour. It is only 
when these defences become weakened that 
we become susceptible to germ invasion. 
Normal blood is Nature's own germicide, and 
germs in the presence of a good circulation of 
fresh, flowing blood disappear as green scum 
on the stagnant pool disappears in the pres- 
ence of fresh, flowing water. In the blood 
there are bacteriocides to destroy germs, 
bacteriolysins to dissolve them, agglutinins to 
retard their movements, antitoxines to neu- 
tralize their poisons and opsonins to pre- 
digest them for the white blood cells. 

The appealing reasonableness of the 
cardinal principles of osteopathy is more 
fully appreciated by a brief study of the 
structure of the human body. The skeleton 
(Fig. 1) is the fundamental structure of the 
body and bears the same relation to the body 
that the framework bears to the building or 
the steel structure to the sky-scraper. It is 
the keystone of the osteopathic curative 
arch. Let mechanical disorder occur here 

29 



Osteopathy, the Science 

and disturbance at once begins. In this 
skeleton there are some two hundred bones 
and from cranium to toes there are as many 
joints. These joints are capable of motion 
and wherever there is motion there is the 
possibility of displacement. It is doubtless 
true that out of these two hundred bones 
there is not one, with the exception of some 
of the bones of the face and the head, that has 
not at some time been misplaced. By 
misplacement we do not mean a gross and 
marked dislocation, apparent to the untrained 
eye and touch, but merely the slightest 
derangement in the mechanical order of this 
framework. 

In Fig. 2 is shown the spinal column, com- 
monly called the spine. You will notice that 
it has certain natural curves; these natural 
curves must be maintained or ill health 
results. Especial attention is called to the 
fact that the spinal column is not a single 
bone, but that it is made up of a number of 
small bones interconnected by joints. These 
joints are in intimate connection with the 
spinal nerves which pass out on either side 
between the vertebrae ; notice also their con- 
nection with each other forming a canal which 
performs the vital function of inclosing the 
spinal cord (as is shown in Fig 3), the most 
important avenue of communication between 
the brain and the organs and tissues of the 
body. From it the spinal nerves, thirty-one 

30 



of Healing by Adjustment 

pairs out of a total of forty-three pairs in the 
entire body, take their origin. These spinal 
nerves are connected, in turn, with the sympa- 
thetic nerves, and by this union the motion, 
the sensation and the nutrition of every or- 
gan and tissue of the body are controlled. 

In Fig. 4 is shown a picture of the body cut 
in half. In this you can observe the spinal 
nerves as they emerge from the openings 
between the vertebrae ; notice also their con- 
nection with the sympathetic nerves and 
through these with the internal organs and 
tissues. Beginning in the neck at the highest 
point you can trace the connections to the 
nerves of the head, the eyes, the throat, the 
face, the thyroid gland, the heart and through 
the pneumogastric nerves to the stomach, the 
liver and the intestines. Further down are 
seen the connections with the heart, the lungs, 
the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the 
pancreas, the intestines, the pelvic organs, 
and the lower extremities. 

Much is now said and written about 
"reflex" disorders. It is a matter of com- 
mon medical knowledge that a decayed tooth 
may cause facial neuralgia, or a slight 
muscular defect about the eye may result in 
headache, or that slight irritation in the ear 
may effect nausea and vomiting, or that a 
diseased vertebra between the shoulders may 
produce pain in the "pit" of the stomach, 
or a diseased hip may create a pain in the 

31 






Osteopathy, the Science 

knee or that various internal troubles may 
cause backache. All these are called " reflex 
effects.' 9 Thus it is manifest that strains 
and slight misplacements of these spinal 
joints may cause deranged action of the 
tissues and organs in direct nervous connec- 
tion with them. It is because these numerous 
spinal joints are in such intimate connection 
with the spinal nerves, each joint receiving 
fibres from the adjacent nerves, that the 
osteopathic physician devotes so much atten- 
tion to the spine. The slightest derangement 
in the position of the bones concerned in the 
formation of these joints causes contraction 
and congestion of all the soft tissues, and 
irritation, perhaps inflammation of the joint 
structures. This irritation is transmitted to 
the organs to which the nerve supplying the 
irritated joint is distributed, and these organs 
become disturbed, as in the familiar cases of 
bad teeth and facial neuralgia, eye-strain and 
headache. 

It is an undisputed fact that the large joints 
of the body, the hip, the shoulder and the 
knee with their numerous and strong liga- 
ments and muscular protection, often become 
dislocated and strained so that their function 
is impaired. As a resultant the parts supplied 
by the blood vessels and nerves connected 
with the joint become greatly impoverished. 
When one considers that the joints of the 
spine are less abundantly protected by liga- 

32 





'Vert* Was' 

i. vn 



Sacra! vertebra 
I. -V. 



;i vorU'b* 
I. V. 



FIG. 2 



FIG. 3. 



SPINAL T/ERVE5 

AS THEY ARE PAS5MG 

BETh/EEri VERTEBRAE 



JUGULAR VEW 



THYROlO CI MP 




AORTA 

HEART 
LliriO 



D1APHRA6/T 

CALL BLADDER 

LIVER 



— OWARY 
BLADDER 



Courtesy of 






) f Healing by Adjustment 

nents, that the vertebrae are placed one 
irectly on top of another, that they must 
upport the entire weight of the body and are 
avolved in its every movement; then when 
ne considers the many jars, falls, wrenches, 
prains and injuries since infancy, he realizes 
he enormous possibility of strains and dis- 
lacements to these joints over the other 
arger and stronger joints of the body, 
liese displacements do, in fact, occur more 
requently, and the parts supplied by the 
erves and blood vessels connected with the 
Dints become correspondingly impoverished 
nd actually diseased, or at lease their resist- 
nce is weakened and they become liable to 
isease. The most important cause of dis- 
ase is mechanical disturbance along the 
pine, and for two powerful reasons : because 
le spinal joints are in themselves peculiarly 
able to derangements, and because the 
Dinal joints are, through the nerves, in such 
itimate and vital relation with all other 
arts of the body. 

What person has not experienced the 
ngling of his fingers from pressure on the 
crazy bone"? You have then realized that 
hen the nerve was irritated at the elbow, 
le effect was referred to the termination of 
te nerve. Eeasoning along the same lines 
e may logically expect and do find similar 
Sects on the more delicately organized 
ssues of the heart, the lungs, or other 

33 






Osteopathy, the S c i e n c e 

internal organs, when there is irritation to 
the nerves supplying them. 

In Fig. 5 there is represented a twisted, 
i. e., rotated, third cervical vertebra. Such a 
condition is as certainly met with as is a 
dislocated hip. It requires no stretch of| 
the imagination to see how this delicate 
joint might be strained or misplaced if the 
larger and stronger hip-joint be subject toi 
such derangements. This condition is one 
often observed by the osteopaths and a refer- 1 
ence to Fig. 6, showing the nerve connection 
from the upper part of the neck, will enabl 
anyone to see that headaches, eye troubles,; 
facial neuralgia, catarrhal conditions of the 
head or other such conditions might resul 
through this nervous disturbance. This ver- 
tebra is taken as typical of a possible de 
rangement or misplacement in this or an^ 
other direction. Such conditions usually! 
result from falls, though it often happens thai 
some muscular strain, some quick or awkwarc 
movement, will produce the described effect 
In this illustration (Fig. 5) there is also, i 
will be observed, a misplaced rib. Such i 
thing does occur, but not without causing 
some direct or reflex trouble. Anothe 
rotated (second dorsal) vertebra is als^ 
shown. It is not a difficult thing for th 
skilled osteopath to diagnose these conditions 
Certain bony points are compared criticalrj 
with certain other points and the correct o| 

34 



j f Healing by Adjustment 

listurbed relation of all parts is established, 
[t embraces precisely the same principle em- 
ployed in surgery in diagnosing a displaced 
shoulder or hip. However, it is only the 
)steopathic physician who is trained to be 
dive to the recognition of these slight differ- 
ences of position or trained to correct them. 
In Figs. 7-8 are seen some of the 
ictual abnormalities that are found and 
torrected daily by osteopathic physicians in 
>ractice throughout the country. In these 
pictures you will observe that the anatomical 
regularities are often gross enough to be 
♦bserved through the soft tissues of the back. 
There are many others, not visible, that are 
jievertheless found and corrected by the 
killed fingers of the osteopath. Naturally 
p ou are moved to ask why the doctors of 
t aedicine themselves have never heretofore 
[ iscovered these things and announced their 
onnection with disease. Frankly, I do not 
now any more than I know why during the 

Iiany centuries that human bodies and 
nimals were dissected, the true nature and 
ause of the circulation of the blood was never 
discovered until the time of Win. Harvey. I 
»| light answer you in the language of one of 
.j heir own number, who says, "what they can- 
v ot perceive through clumsy and ill-trained 
^ngers they are inclined to deny." These 
i onditions are not figments of the osteopathic 
li pagination, for both dissection and the 

35 



1 



Osteopathy, the Science 

X-ray have in innumerable instances verified 
the findings of the trained touch of the 
osteopathic physician. 

Proceeding a little further down the spine 
we come to its lung connections, as shown in 
Fig. 9. Here we find disturbances that may 
lead to asthma, chronic bronchitis, and 
pleurisy. We may even find as well predis- 
positions to acute lung troubles, because by 
the irritation from these " lesions' ' the resist- 
ance of the lung tissue is lowered. Here may 
be illustrated the osteopathic idea of the part 
that germs play in the production of disease. 
For instance, the lesion in the lung area could 
not of itself cause tuberculosis, or pneumonia, 
for there must be a specific germ present in 
either disease, but the lesion could so lower 
the vitality of the lung tissue that the latter 
could not resist or overcome the germs of 
tuberculosis or pneumonia as do the lungs of 
the individual who has no spinal derange- 
ment at this point. The recovery from these 
diseases, if it occurred, would be much more 
difficult in the patient who had the lesion. A 
displaced rib is shown in Fig. 10 ; this when 
occurring on the right side causes a train of 
symptoms so closely resembling appendicitis 
that surgeons have often operated for it. It 
is also the fruitful cause of pains in the side. 
Here is also shown, as well as in Figs. 11 and 
12, one of the most important lesions in the 
entire body, a displaced innominate bone. Id 

36 












VERTEBPAL A/PTllfr 

2d CERVICAL NERVE 
-SCALENUS MED/U5 

SCALENUS AliT/CUJ 
BRACHIAL PLEXUS 

ht RIB (UPWARD) 

1st INTERCOSTAL 
NERVE & VESSEL 




Zd THOR. VERT. 
ROTATED. 



FIG. 5. 




FIG. 8. 







FIG. 9. 



of Healing by Adjustment 

the past four or five years the "regular" 
medical profession has stumbled upon the 
occurrence of this condition and has tried to 
appropriate it as an original discovery of its 
own. Osteopathic literature abounded in 
mention of this condition, years before the 
"regulars" had ever heard of it, and in fact 
while they were strenuously denying the 
possibility of any derangement whatever at 
this point. Bearing in mind the strong muscles 
attached to this bone from the spinal column 
above and from the legs below, one can 
readily appreciate the many and widespread 
disturbances that may arise at this point from 
derangements. Intense and persistent back- 
aches, sciatica, lameness, and diseases of the 
internal pelvic organs, are some of the 
numerous conditions that are cured by cor- 
recting misplacements of bones in this region. 
These conditions might be traced on and 
on, until we had covered all the diseases to 
which the human body is heir. Every mis- 
■ placed or strained joint, or any misplaced 
I tissue becomes a central point from which go 
irritating and resistance-reducing impulses. 
The effects upon the internal organs likewise 
| could be traced, for each spinal nerve has its 
definite connections with external tissues and 
internal organs. 



37 



Osteopathy, the Science 



OSTEOPATHY 
A Comparison 

There are in vogue at the present time 
three prominent methods or schools of treat- 
ment, the medicinal, the mental, and the 
manipulative. To the end that the modus 
operandi of these schools of practice may 
adequately be understood, a brief resume of 
the formation, the principles of nutrition, and 
the defensive powers of the body is a neces- I 
sary introduction. 

The human body develops from a single cell 
so small that it is invisible to the naked eye, 
and so minute that it can be studied only 
under a high power microscope. In the course 
of development these tiny cells begin to differ 
one from another, and from these cells 
multiple tissues and organs, bone, muscle, 
brain, and blood, with all of their respective 
functions are formed and evolved. 

Each cell is in itself a vital unit. The 
health and activity of any organ is the sum 
of the health and activity of its individual 
cells. The different parts of the body are 
united and controlled by the nerves, them- 
selves cells with long prolongations. These 
nerve fibres connect the cells of the 
different organs with the great governing 

38 






of Healing by Adjustment 

center, the brain, by which all their activities 
are controlled and regulated. Thus it 
becomes evident that any interference with 
the nerve connections of a single cell or 
group of cells causes interference with their 
every function, and may initiate their sick- 
ness or induce their death. 

It is said that life began as a single cell, in 
the waters of the briny deep. Be that as it 
may, it is none the less a fact that each cell 
of the body must bathe in a fluid, the blood, a 
portion of which wonderfully resembles sea 
water. Each cell receives its food supply 
from the blood and pours into it its waste 
material. Thus it is that the blood stream 
brings food and carries sewage. It carries 
throughout the body elements of life-giving 
food as well as death-dealing poison. If any 
: cell or group of cells is deprived of this con- 
tact with the blood stream, it dies a three-fold 
death ; a death of starvation because it re- 
, ceives no food, a death of poison because it 
J is soon killed by its own excreta, and a death 
| of thirst because it is deprived of its briny 
bath. Cell health is impossible without a 
: good circulation of pure blood, and bodily 
i health in turn is dependent upon cell health. 

The blood is manufactured from the food 
we eat, the water we drink and the air we 
breathe, and from these it is constantly 
i receiving cell food by the processes of diges- 
tion and assimilation. It is constantly pass- 

39 



Osteopathy, the Science 

ing through the kidneys, liver and lungs, the 
office of each being to rid it of certain poi- 
sons. The blood is therefore continuously 
being prepared from the food and con- 
stantly being purified by the eliminating 
organs. Nothing else than pure air and pure 
food and pure water can add to its health- 
giving properties, nor is any foreign material 
necessary for its purification. Thus the blood 
presents a "balanced ration' ' for cell use and 
the addition of anything other than air and 
food and water is a pollution rendering it 
unfit for cell food. 

The blood is itself composed of red and 
white blood cells, together with a liquid 
portion called serum. The red blood-cells 
carry oxygen, fuel, to the tissues. The white 
blood-cells are the soldiers, the standing army 
of the body. Besides this they are the repair 
men and the scavengers. They have the 
power of independent motion and can leave 
the blood vessels and wander about at will in 
the tissues. Here their function is to attack 
and destroy invading germs and to devour 
particles of dead foreign matter. They form 
a defensive army against living enemies from 
without, and whenever germ invasion 
threatens or occurs or an injury is received 
they rush like trained soldiers, in great num- 
bers, to destroy the invading host, to repair 
the damage, or to remove the debris and the 
wreckage from the scene of disaster. Often 

40 



I 




IZth RIB (DOUtl a INUAk 



— LAST THOR. NERVE 

coritiiCTion 

with Lunemntmti 



-LIVER 



LUMBAR VESSELS 



LUMBAR NERVES 



V. IttttOMINATE 
§ (FORWARD) 



-SUPERIOR GLUTEAL VE55EL 



CREAT SCIflTIC NERVE 



(OIKi mil ISCHIADIC! 
'•rSCIATIC VESSEL 



FLMJIR(DOWHARD) 




FIG. 11 



LAST THORACIC 



IflFERIOR VENA CAVA 
LUMBAR PLEXUS 




IN NOMINATE 



poupm's uo 



FEMORAL ARTERY 
FEMORAL VEIN 

A fiT. CRURAL NERVE 



coccrx. 



GREAT SCIATIC NERVt 



FIG. 12. 



of Healing by Adjustment 

many of them succumb in the struggle and 
their dead bodies form pus or " matter' ' so 
often observed after injuries. They are an 
embodiment of the healing power of nature, 
and recovery from infectious diseases is due 
largely to their activity. That many drugs 
weaken or destroy their powers of defense 
is positive proof of the harmfulness of drug 
medication. While the other cells are not 
such active defenders of the body, they are 
indispensable assistants and possess great 
powers of resistance. 

In the blood are present other substances, 
originating perhaps in the white blood cells 
or perhaps in bodily organs, which have the 
power to resist or to destroy the germs. 
These substances neutralize the poisons pro- 
duced by germs, they retard their movements, 
dissolve them, and predigest them in prepara- 
tion for the white blood cells to devour. They 
are known as germicides, antitoxins, agglu- 
tinins, bacteriolysins and opsonins. So it is 
that blood is nature's own antiseptic, and 
germs disappear and health returns wherever 
it flows in proper quality and quantity. 

Without discussing in argumentative fash- 
ion the philosophy of the medicinal methods, 
we may say that in the main they inculcate 
the introduction into the body of some outside 
agency, a foreign substance, usually a poison, 
to effect a cure. This they claim is "assist- 
ing Nature.' ' This method has been in use 

41 



Osteopathy, the Science 

for centuries, regardless of the fact that 
marvelous advances have been made in every 
other department of medical knowledge. In 
anatomy, physiology, and the whole science of 
diseases, a wonderful development has been 
realized; yet during this time the plan of 
drugging the sick has continued without 
change, though thousands of remedies have 
been tried and proved useless. 

Drugging was in vogue during the days 
when science was in absolute ignorance of the 
true cause and nature of the circulation of the 
blood. Harvey's discovery was a revelation, 
and in its light all medical books had to be 
rewritten; yet the practice of drugging the 
sick continued. When the body was declared 
to be made up of "a slimy and gelatinous 
fluid," drugs were given. After the micro- 
scope had demonstrated that the body was a 
commonwealth of cells, each cell a vital unit, 
anatomy and physiology were revolutionized ; 
but drugs were still administered. 

In the days before anything was known of 
the processes of digestion, assimilation or 
excretion, drugs were relied upon to cure. 
After experimentation with the stomach 
pump and the test tube had shown that all 
these vital activities were disturbed by drugs, 
their use still was unabated. Knowledge of 
the body has increased, the secrets of its 
silent processes have been made known, much 
of the mystery of disease has been solved, but 

42 



of Healing by Adjustment 

the practice, thousands of years old, of 
putting poisons into diseased bodies, has in 
this time changed not a whit in principle, and 
only in the kind and quantity of the poison 
administered. 

A remedy once introduced into the system 
finds its way by absorption into the blood. 
Here it has no power to go exclusively to the 
diseased part, but must go to all parts alike. 
It must come in contact with each delicate 
cell. There is no assurance that it may not 
derange some unaffected part; on the con- 
trary there is almost a certainty that it will 
result in some derangement. It is an axiom 
in therapeutics, as well as in physics, that for 
every action there is a corresponding reac- 
tion. Often the reaction from a dose of 
drugs entails a great deal more disturbance 
than the action does good. There is nothing 
but pure food and water that can be intro- 
duced without harm, and nothing else has the 
power to rebuild diseased tissues. 

Eemedies are given to "assist nature,' ' but 
no one has yet been able to explain how 
nature can be assisted in an unnatural 
manner by the introduction of foreign and 
extraneous material into the body. These 
contaminate the blood upon which each cell 
must feed, cause it to cease to be a "balanced 
ration,' ' and as a consequence cell health and 
nutrition suffer in proportion. In but the 
fewest diseases is there any claim that the 

43 



Osteopathy, the Science 

drug has power to kill the germs, and even in 
these cases there is great danger of killing the 
body cells instead. All remedies that are not 
foods must be eliminated from the body, and 
the introduction of a poison imposes an addi- 
tional burden as well as irritation upon the 
eliminating organs. 

Internal remedies are uncertain and unde- 
pendable. There is no power to control their 
action or to limit the consequences of such 
action and the results are never the same in 
any two instances. Out of the thousands of 
remedies given there are less than half a 
dozen of the so-called " specifics' 9 whose 
action can be thoroughly relied upon. They 
are poisons that require great care in their 
dosage for fear of causing death. They are 
harmful when given to well people. They do 
not remove causes, they merely mask 
symptoms. 

We search in vain for any consistent funda- 
mental principles in drug administration. 
The tenets of today become the heresies of 
tomorrow. Bleeding, that was once used for 
nearly all diseases, is now declared to be 
pernicious. Famished fever patients who 
were once denied water are now allowed all 
they desire. Antimony, once the reliance in 
many diseases, is now seldom given. Calomel, 
once the mainstay for causing activity of the 
liver, is now declared by the best authorities 
to have no such action. The persecuted of a 

44 



of Healing by Adjustment 

few generations ago are the heroes of today. 
No one knows but that Friedmann, of anti- 
tuberculosis-turtle-serum fame, may yet have 
a monument erected to him. He undoubtedly 
will achieve such laurels if medical history 
repeats itself. 

The Homeopathic system of drug medica- 
tion originated about the year 1800. Its 
fundamental principle was that the patient 
must be given a remedy that would in health 
produce symptoms similar to those from 
which he was suffering. Only one remedy 
should be given at a time and that in the 
minutest quantity. The subdivision, or 
"potentizing," the remedy immensely devel- 
oped its power for cure : common table salt 
in a crude state is inert; but when given in 
the 30th potency (one grain divided by thirty, 
ten times, represented by a fraction whose 
numerator is one, and whose denominator is 
one followed by thirty ciphers), it becomes a 
powerful remedy. This is claimed to be true 
of other inert substances, such as ordinary 
charcoal. These potencies have been run to 
1,000 or even 1,000,000, but it is claimed that 
when thus diluted, "they represent such an 
extreme power that only men of the highest 
skill in homeopathy dare use them because of 
the risk of incurring possibly disastrous 
results.' ' (Boericke & Anshutz, Elements of 
Homeopathy). The logical conclusion of this 
reasoning brings us to the absurdity that the 

45 



Osteopathy, the Science 

smaller the dose the greater the danger, or if 
the patient only takes little enough of a 
sufficiently harmless remedy the results might 
prove exceedingly disastrous. 

The dosage was in point of fact reduced to 
such infinitesimal proportions that it was 
presumptuous to expect any effect from it 
whatever. The fact was evident that if the 
dosage of the " regulars" was necessary, then 
the dosage of the homeopaths was absolutely 
without effect. On the other hand, if the 
homeopathic doses were effective (and the 
results from this treatment were altogether 
as good as these of the "regular" school), 
then the enormous doses of the "regulars" 
were certainly unnecessary and harmful. 
This conflict between the two principal 
schools of drug medication demonstrated 
clearly that drugs were unnecessary for cure ; 
and, in this way, homeopathy has been a great 
boon to the human race, and has prepared the 
public for the favorable consideration of the 
drugless methods of healing. 

Of the non-material methods, Christian 
Science is best known. Its fundamental 
principle is that, "nothing is real but mind. 
Matter and sickness are subjective states of 
error that can be dispelled by a true knowl- 
edge of God and Christ." To the reasoning 
of this cult, small-pox is a "subjective state 
of error," as is likewise the idea that the 
idisease is contagious. So too, perhaps, is 

46 



of Healing by Adjustment 

your neighbor's burning house, and the idea 
that your own, adjoining it, will catch fire. 

Whatever else may be said of it, this school 
has done great good in calling attention to 
the healing-power of mental attitude in 
diseases, and has been instrumental to a great 
degree in furthering the development of 
scientific psycho-therapy. There is nothing 
new in their methods of healing, nor have 
they ever effected any cures that have not 
been duplicated by other psychic methods. 

Those appealing in behalf of osteopathy do 
not ask you to accept that which you cannot 
perceive, nor to deny the indisputable evi- 
dence of the physical senses. Osteopathy is the 
recognized manipulative method of cure. Its 
principles are in accord with all the findings 
of science. It embraces the marvelous revela- 
tions of the microscope and all the discoveries 
in anatomy, physiology and disease manifes- 
tations. It recognizes the cell as the basis of 
life, of health, and of disease, and that cell 
health depends upon a free flow of nerve force 
and an unobstructed blood supply. These 
conditions can obtain only when all parts of 
the body are in perfect position. The funda- 
mental principle of osteopathy is that struc- 
ture must be perfect, all parts of the body in 
proper place, in order that function be per- 
fect; or, in other words, " structure deter- 
mines function." 

Osteopathy maintains that poisons cannot 

47 



Osteopathy, the Science 

make health. Health can come only from a 
proper quantity and quality of nature's great 
nutrient and antiseptic, blood. This is 
possible only with unobstructed nerve paths 
and open blood channels. The purpose of 
osteopathic manipulations is to secure these 
conditions. 

Osteopathy is based upon the demonstrable 
fact that when the body cells have a perfect 
supply of good blood and are in communica- 
tion with the brain through the nerves that 
they perform their duties promptly and 
efficiently and are invincible to their ever- 
present enemies, germs. 

Osteopathy assists nature in a natural 
manner and does not derange unaffected 
parts. It adds no contamination to the blood 
and imposes no additional duty upon the 
eliminating organs. There is no danger of 
poisoning a patient nor making a drug fiend 
by its ministrations. There is no harmful or 
unpleasant reaction from its use ; its action is 
as certain and dependable as are the laws of 
anatomy and physiology. More than all else, 
it is essentially a treatment for the removal 
of the primary, causative factors in disease. 



of Healing by Adjustment 



LABORATORY PROOF OF OSTEO- 
PATHIC THEORIES 

Osteopathic theories had been put to prac- 
tical and convincing tests for many years and 
the results demonstrated had been uniformly 
successful and satisfactory. The osteopathic 
profession had insisted that "lesions" and 
anatomical irregularities of the body machine, 
of the spine especially, were actual occur- 
rences, for they had located them, removed 
them, and restored their patients to health. 
While all this was convincing to the average 
mind there was still lacking the indisputable 
evidence of scientific demonstration, evidence 
which the judicious mind had a right to de- 
mand. If osteopathic theories had a corres- 
pondence in fact, then they were capable of 
proof ; it was proof alone that would satisfy. 
Knowing that their method must stand or fall 
by the results of scientific investigation, and 
assured that theory must ultimately clash 
with reality, the osteopaths themselves de- 
manded facts. 

For the conduct of necessary tests and 
experimentation, modern laboratory facilities 
and equipment equal to that of the institu- 
tions of highest scientific attainment, were 
necessary. For this purpose the osteopathic 

49 



Osteopathy, the Science 

physicians of the world have out of their own 
earnings subscribed $100,000 as the beginning 
of a $1,000,000 fund to endow the A. T. Still 
Eesearch Institute. (Fig. 13). This institu- 
tion was chartered to "perfect the application 
of osteopathy and to extend its possibilities 
of service to mankind.' ' Unlike other re- 
search institutes it first appealed, not to the 
public nor to millionaire philanthropists, but 
to the members of its own profession for re- 
quisite funds. Sufficient funds have already 
accrued to the foundation, to justify the em- 
ployment of several trained laboratory work- 
ers. Through these experiments the original 
contentions of the osteopaths have been veri- 
fied, and osteopathy has been demonstrated 
the most rational, scientific and dependable 
method of treating diseases yet conceived. 
These workers have gone to the heart of the 
contention, produced the lesions (derange- 
ments of structure), have later shown their 
presence by dissection, and have demon- 
strated beyond cavil that the lesion is the 
primal cause of the disease. They have fur- 
ther proved beyond peradventure or question 
that the activity of the internal organs can be 
normalized by manipulation of the govern- 
ing spinal centers, and that the bodily resist- 
ance to disease can be increased by oste- 
opathic treatment. 

In this work more than 500 animals, — dogs, 
monkeys, cats, rabbits and guinea pigs — have 

50 



of Healing by Adjustment 

been operated on and scientifically and per- 
sistently studied to determine the effect of the 
osteopathic lesion and the results of osteo- 
pathic adjustment. These animals were anes- 
thetized and slight strains or malpositions of 
their spines produced. These injuries were 
so slight in character as to be no greater than 
those found in the human body in daily prac- 
tice. In no case was violence used, there was 
no displacement of joints or fracture of bones 
or laceration of the soft tissues. The avowed 
object was the production of a slight slipping 
or maladjustment of the spinal joints, the 
ordinary osteopathic lesion as every day 
observable in the human body. As a rule the 
animal was not in the least disabled, or at 
most, he recovered in a day or two. A trifling 
ineptitude, a slight soreness or stiffness at 
the seat of the injury, and some sensitiveness 
to touch remained, as is usually found in the 
human subject. 

The animals were watched for a variable 
length of time, from three to eighty days, and 
were then killed with chloroform. They were 
examined under the usual exacting conditions 
of a post mortem, and the findings were tabu- 
lated. On examination it was found that the 
ligaments and other soft tissues about the 
joints had been strained, stretched, congested, 
and inflamed. All the nerve tissues of the 
spinal cord, the nerve roots and the nerves 
and their branches corresponding to the seat 

5! 



Osteopathy, the Science 

of injury showed diseased changes, conges- 
tion, inflammation, and even degeneration. 
The blood vessels in the injured area were en- 
gorged and their walls were thickened. 

The most significant fact was that the 
internal organs whose nerve supply came 
from the damaged area showed marked 
changes. These changes corresponded de- 
finitely to the paths of the nerves supplying 
the respective organs. When the nerves con- 
trolling the stomach and intestines were in- 
volved the powers of motion, secretion, and 
digestion in these organs were altered and 
lessened. Their lining membranes were con- 
gested and inflamed. The results when the 
kidney centers were involved were just as 
positive. Congestion and inflammation with 
all the attendant changes of acute Bright 's 
disease resulted. The correction of the mal- 
adjustment in these cases caused a sub- 
sidence of the symptoms. Derangements of 
the liver and spleen were found when the mal- 
adjustments were caused in that region of 
the spine from which they receive their nerve 
supply. In other cases the pancreas was 
acutely disordered. In these cases an analysis 
of the urine showed that it contained sugar, 
an evidence of diabetes. Goitres are produced 
in several animals when the spinal injuries 
involved the nerves supplying the thyroid 
glands. Goitres thus produced were cured 
by correcting the derangement in the same 

52 



of Healing by Adjustment 

animal. All the changes in the internal 
organs were of an acute character and corres- 
ponded accurately with the spinal or rib de- 
rangement. 

From these cases the following are re- 
ported as typical : 

In one animal, two weeks after the opera- 
tion, the third, fourth, and fifth ribs on the 
right side were found to be dislocated upward 
at their vertebral ends. There was the usual 
ligamentous and muscular tension in the 
affected area, as well as a great deal of con- 
gestion in the nerves and in that region of the 
spinal cord. This dog was sick and inactive 
for a week following the first forty-eight 
hours after the operation. The spleen was 
swollen to twice its normal size. 

In one instance the lower and middle dorsal 
regions were sprung forward with only 
moderate force. Six weeks later a separa- 
tion was found between the tenth and 
eleventh dorsal vertebrae. The fourth and 
fifth ribs on the right side were sprung up- 
ward at their vertebral ends. The muscles 
and ligaments contiguous to the injured area 
were very tense and rigid. There was found 
a stricture of the small intestine, and the 
spinal nerves between the tenth and eleventh 
vertebrae were congested. 

In another case a lateral twist between the 
third and fourth dorsal vertebrae was pro- 

53 



Osteopathy, the Science 

duced, and the vertebral ends of the third 
and fourth ribs were subluxated upward. The 
usual rigidity and tenseness of the tissues 
was found. This dog lost much flesh and was 
very sick from twenty-four hours after the 
operation until the time of dissection. The 
stomach walls were thin and dilated and a 
large area at either end of the stomach was 
found noticeably congested. 

In still another case, nineteen days after 
the production of the lesion, twists between 
the second and third and between the fourth 
and fifth dorsal vertebrae were found. The 
nerve roots, the nerves, and the correspond- 
ing part of the spinal cord were still found 
to be congested. The dog was ill, suffered 
from excessive thirst and loss of appetite and 
flesh. The spleen was found to be slightly 
enlarged and two-thirds of the stomach area 
showed marked congestion. 

In still other cases experiments upon every 
one of fifteen dogs showed some disturbance 
from the lesions produced. These disturbances 
varied from slight changes in the urine to 
conditions sufficiently severe to cause death. 
The lesions were produced in the middle and 
lower dorsal regions. Evidences of diabetes, 
sugar in the urine, appeared in every animal 
operated thus, and continued for a period of 
two to seven months. In some of the animals 
in which the lesions were corrected the symp- 

54 



of Healing by Adjustment 

toms disappeared to return when the lesions 
were reproduced. Either diarrhoea or con- 
stipation occurred in eight of the fifteen dogs, 
and in four the diarrhoea was of severe type. 
Vomiting occurred in five. It must be re- 
membered that the experiment included other 
"control" dogs under identical food and care 
and surroundings, and these latter showed no 
unusual symptoms whatever. And it should 
be made plain that the lesions produced at 
the same point in the spine made one disease, 
or affected one organ, and those at another 
point; lower or higher, always affected an- 
other organ. 

In a series of experiments upon monkeys, 
selected because of their close resemblance in 
structure and function to the human being, 
very remarkable results were secured. These 
animals were kept under observation for 
several weeks before they were operated 
upon, to insure that they were in a healthy 
condition. With one isolated exception they 
either retained their weight or gained flesh 
during this time. After the lesions were 
produced every animal operated upon lost 
weight; and this loss in weight was re- 
gained after the lesions were corrected. 
There was about the same proportion of 
intestinal disturbances and diabetic symp- 
toms as occurred with the dogs. A most 
remarkable feature of these experiments was 
that not merely once or twice but even three 

55 



Osteopathy, the Science 

times in the same animal intestinal disorders 
were cured by adjusting the lesion and caused 
again by reproducing it. As in the case of 
the dogs, other monkeys kept in similar cages, 
on the same diet and the same general care, 
showed no evidences of disease whatever. 
More conclusive evidence that spinal irregu- 
larities cause disease cannot be produced. 
These experiments demonstrate scientifically 
and undeniably not only that the lesion does 
cause disease but that the correction of the 
lesion cures disease. 

A prominent medical writer has said, "The 
body is like a piano or a harp, to be played 
upon at will. All that is needed is to work 
out the principles on a practical physiological 
basis." This physiological basis the experi- 
mental department of the A. T. Still Besearch 
Institute has worked out. By experiment 
upon the human being and the lower animals 
they have established unmistakably many 
centers along the spine, by the manipulation 
of which differing effects can be produced 
upon the several internal organs of the 
body. It has been scientifically proved by 
experimentation that the proper application 
of osteopathic manipulations can increase 
or decrease general blood pressure as may 
be desired. It has also been demonstrated 
that by similar means the activities of the 
kidneys can be increased from twelve to 
one hundred per cent., and the flow of the 

56 



of Healing by Adjustment 

bile from thirty to ninety per cent. The 
osteopaths have proved the proposition of 
the medical writer that the spine is indeed the 
keyboard of this wonderful instrument, the 
human body, and the nerves and nerve 
centers are the strings of this harp, through 
whose instrumentality the osteopathic physi- 
cian is enabled out of discord and disease to 
bring forth harmony and health. 

It has been ascertained that the blood con- 
tains substances whose effect upon germs is 
to render them more easily destroyed by the 
white blood cells. These substances have 
been named opsonins because they seem to 
prepare the germ cells for digestion by the 
white blood cells. The degree of their 
activity is called the opsonic index. Experi- 
ments have conclusively proved that oste- 
opathic manipulation of the liver and spleen 
increases the opsonic index, or the resistance 
of the body to germ action, to a marked de- 
gree. This affords explanation of the splen- 
did results obtained by the osteopathic prac- 
titioner in the treatment of germ diseases, 
such as typhoid fever, la grippe, pneumonia, 
diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, or menin- 
gitis. 

These experiments are being continued at 
the A. T. Still Eesearch Institute to extend 
the possibilities of osteopathic service to 
mankind. Since its organization many grate- 
ful patients have contributed to its endow- 

57 



Osteopathy, the Science 

ment. It now affords to those who wish to 
contribute to a great educational and philan- 
thropic movement one of the greatest oppor- 
tunities of the times. 



58 



of Healing by Adjustment 



OSTEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES 

It is a significant fact that Dr. Still was a 
general practitioner and by the nature of his 
profession his practice consisted in treating 
diseases of all kinds and of every degree of 
severity. He was unable to select certain 
diseases to treat but had to care for them as 
they presented themselves. 

The work of a general practitioner con- 
sists, for the greater part, of acute diseases, 
and it was to combat these that osteopathy 
was originated and developed. The first 
patients to whom osteopathic treatment was 
administered were those ill of acute dis- 
orders, as fevers, pneumonia, and dysentery. 
The results in these cases were so extraordi- 
nary that chronic diseases, the acknowledged 
failures of the other schools of healing, 
challenged the new treatment. Proving so 
successful in these, in which other methods 
had proved useless, the demand for their 
treatment was so great that osteopathy has 
come to be known, largely, though erron- 
eously, as especially adapted to chronic 
diseases. 

From the origin of osteopathy it is readily 
appreciated that the treatment is applicable 
to that wide category of diseases coming 

59 



Osteopathy, the Science 

under the care of the general practitioner. 
It is neither a remedy for a single disease, 
nor a special method applicable to some par- 
ticular class or group of diseases, nor a part 
of medicine or surgery, but it is a SYSTEM 
of treatment, broader in its application than 
the practice of drugs, and adapted to all 
curable diseases, whether acute or chronic. 

The terms acute or chronic, as applied to 
diseases, have reference only to duration. 
An acute disease is, relatively speaking, one 
of short duration, usually of abrupt onset, 
and perhaps of a severe course. A chronic 
disease is one of relatively longer duration, 
more gradual onset, and perhaps a less severe 
course. Many diseases pass through an 
acute stage before they become chronic, and 
are as a matter of course more easily cured 
in the beginning than after they have become 
well established. 

While osteopathy has won its greatest re- 
nown as a cure for chronic diseases, it is in 
acute troubles that its most brilliant suc- 
cesses and quickest results are seen. 

The unfounded objection is sometimes 
offered that the results of osteopathic treat- 
ment are too slow to be of service in acute 
diseases. The fact is that the response to 
osteopathic manipulations follows as quickly 
as the tingling in the fingers follows the blow 
on the " crazy bone," or as promptly as anger 
blanches the face, or a feeling of shame 

60 



of Healing by Adjustment 

flushes the cheek. The response is immedi- 
ate, simultaneous with the treatment, and 
comes as rapidly as a nerve can respond to 
an impulse, or the blood stream course 
through the diseased part. The curative im- 
pulse once initiated is reinforced by nature's 
inherent recuperative powers and is contin- 
uous. There is no waiting for the action of 
the remedy until it is absorbed and dis- 
tributed by the blood current. Such would 
occupy an interval of from fifteen to thirty 
minutes even when administered hypodermic- 
ally, and from one to twelve hours where 
given by the month. The response, too, is 
dependable, because it is based upon anatomi- 
cal and physiological laws and is far different 
from the blind experiment of putting a poison 
into an organism, the reaction of which no 
man can foretell. There is no fear of an 
idiosyncracy by which a dose harmless to one 
individual may prove fatal to another. 

Surprise is sometimes expressed that the 
osteopathic physician should claim to effect 
internal conditions in fevers, internal inflam- 
mations, or acute diseases. Often those ex- 
pressing surprise at this claim accept without 
question and with remarkable credulity the 
glaring fallacy that poisons,- — substances, 
which if given in health, cause disease, are 
able when given in disease to restore one to 
health. There is no microscope, no X-ray, 
nor other contrivance of man, able to follow a 

61 



Osteopathy, the Science 

dose of drugs through the laboratory of the 
human body and to solve the mystery as to 
what change the drug undergoes, or where 
the change takes place, or what effects it has 
and how they are produced, or to measure 
the possible harm from this seeming good. 

It 'has been said that the essential feature 
of osteopathy is adjustment, yet there are 
instances where it may be inexpedient or 
inadvisable to attempt to secure adjustment. 
This sometimes occurs in severe and acute ill- 
ness. Under such circumstances, the osteo- 
pathic physician has very definite and re- 
liable resources at his command. There are 
along the spine certain nerve centers from 
which pass out nerves controlling the internal 
organs and tissues. By the manipulation of 
these centers the internal conditions are con- 
trolled naturally and effectively. The exist- 
ence of some of these centers is common 
medical knowledge, while the location of 
many of them has been demonstrated by the 
osteopaths through experiments upon lower 
animals and the human being. The effects 
of correct manipulation of these centers are 
harmless and in accord with the natural and 
known laws of physiology. They are uni- 
form and demonstrable and belief in their 
action does not require the credulous accept- 
ance of an unsolved riddle. 

The success of osteopathy in the treatment 
of chronic diseases can not be questioned. It 

62 



of Healing by Adjustment 

is reasonable to suppose that any method 
successful in diseases of long standing, that 
is, in chronic cases where the vitality was low 
and recuperative power was weakened by 
continued illness, would prove more success- 
ful in diseases of recent occurrence, that is in 
acute cases where the vitality was vigorous 
and the recuperative power active. Such 
reasoning is borne out by facts. 

It is a matter of constant comment that 
the best doctors of medicine are giving the 
fewest drugs. It is no uncommon thing for 
a case of pneumonia, typhoid fever or other 
acute disease to be treated by medical men 
without the administration of a dose of medi- 
cine. The doctor has merely acted in an 
advisory capacity in the case and other than 
this whatever good he has done has been 
negative rather than positive. The good is 
in what he has not done rather than in what 
he has done. He has wisely done nothing be- 
cause he knew that his remedies were capable 
of much harm. The osteopathic physician, 
educated as thoroughly as he is in the nat- 
ural history, the course, the diagnosis and 
the management of diseases, is just as 
capable an advisor and has in his skilled 
fingers and his knowledge of the structure 
and working of all parts of the body and the 
nerve centers controlling them, means of 
positive good. He can set free nature's pent 
up reparative forces, liberate the natural 

63 



Osteopathy, the Science 

antitoxins, bactericides and opsonins, stimu- 
late by natural means sluggish and inactive 
organs, repress those that are over-active, 
and by these means cause a cessation of the 
ravages of disease. 

Nothing the medical man does that is of 
proven value is omitted by the osteopath. 
Nursing, dieting, bathing, and all hygienic 
or sanitary measures are employed. And 
nothing that the former does that is capable 
of harm, the injection of poisons into an al- 
ready diseased body, does the latter fail to 
omit. All the indications for which drugs 
are given are adequately met by osteopathic 
treatment; the relief of pain, the reduction 
of fever, the quieting of nervousness, the pro- 
duction of sleep, the stimulation of organs for 
the elimination of poisons, the stimulation of 
liver, kidneys, heart, or the repression of an 
overactive organ. All this is effected with- 
out the danger or discomfort of disturbing 
one part in the hope of affecting another 
favorably. 

Sometimes the uninitiated, while watching 
a rather vigorous treatment* will say: "My! 
I couldn 't stand that. ' ' The assertion is true. 
Neither could the critic wear another's 
clothes. The question is sometimes asked, 
"do you treat babies?" When told that we 
do, the next exclamation is, "like that?" 
Certainly not! No more than medical men 
would give the infant and the adult the same 

64 











Home of the A. T. Still Research Institute. 




Building for Experimental Work. 



FIG. 13 



of Healing by Adjustment 

amount of medicine at a dose. The principle 
is the same but the dose is different. It re- 
quires as much skill for the osteopathic 
physician to prescribe and administer the 
proper treatment to a given case as it does 
for the doctor of medicine to prescribe the 
proper dose of medicine to a given case. The 
osteopathic treatment is adapted to the age, 
vigor and condition of the patient. None are 
too young, none are too old. Osteopathy is 
adapted to all periods from birth to old age. 
The infant and the infirm must be handled 
with extreme care and gentleness, the more 
robust with equal skill, but more vigorously, 
if indicated. Patients are never too weak or 
too sick to be treated by osteopathy. As a 
rule in acute diseases the treatments are 
given much more frequently than in chronic 
troubles. 

Osteopathy treats acute diseases more suc- 
cessfully than does any other method of treat- 
ment. It does not seem necessary after such 
a statement to enumerate the separate dis- 
eases, for the assertion includes all diseases 
that are amenable to any treatment. Yet 
osteopathy has never made claim to being 
;a cure-all. It has its acknowledged limita- 
tions and does not claim to accomplish the 
impossible. It is content that, as a system of 
treatment, it has demonstrated an effective- 
aess far superior to any other method. 

Thousands of families now call upon the 

65 



Osteopathy, the Science 

osteopathic physician for the relief of all 
their ills and daily he is becoming more 
popular as a family physician. 



66 



of Healing by Adjustment 



Osteopathy — How It Differs from Other 
Manual Methods. 

In the minds of some otherwise well-in- 
formed people, osteopathy is occasionally con- 
fused with massage, Swedish movements, 
physical culture, exercise, or even simple rub- 
bing. The medical profession particularly 
appears confused as to what the practice of 
osteopathy is. They often labor under the de- 
lusion that massage and osteopathy are very 
similar, if not identical. This depreciating 
idea can issue only from an utter ignor- 
ance of the cardinal principles of osteopathy, 
or from a very superficial knowledge of 
massage. 

These means of treatment just alluded to 
are each of value under contributing condi- 
tions, but between them and osteopathy there 
is little similarity either in principle or prac- 
| tice. Osteopathic physicians may make use 
! of them as aids or adjuncts; as would also the 
medical practitioners ; but these adjuncts bear 
no more distinctive or significant a relation 
to osteopathy than they do to the practice of 
medicine. It might as well be claimed that 
they constitute the practice of medicine, as to 
say that they are the same as osteopathy. 
It can not be too strongly asserted or im- 

67 



Osteopathy, the Science 

pressed that osteopathy is a complete SYS- 
TEM or science of treatment, while these 
other manual methods are merely small parts 
of a system, mere adjuncts or supplements. 

Massage in some form has been practiced 
by all ancient peoples ; it had reached an ad- 
vanced stage of perfection as early as the 
days of Hippocrates. It consists of a series 
of routine rubbings, strokings, tappings, and 
kneadings, executed in a general and very in- 
definite manner. It is such work as is dele- 
gated to nurses and does not demand especial 
knowledge of the body or of diseases. 

Swedish movements were introduced in 
1814 and they consist of little more than 
systematized exercises. Physical culture 
was practiced by the ancient Greeks and 
is merely the application of certain exer- 
cises for physical development. Ordinary 
exercise, judiciously prescribed, is of great 
value, to be sure, under approximately 
normal conditions; but it would be verg- 
ing on the criminal to recommend it to 
patients acutely ill of pneumonia or typhoid 
fever or meningitis. In the presence of these 
critical conditions, osteopathy is invaluable, 
indispensable. 

The fundamental fact in the conception of 
osteopathy is ADJUSTMENT. Any method 
which does not embrace this principle is not 
osteopathy. Neither massage, nor Swedish 
movements, nor physical culture, nor simple 

68 



of Healing by Adjustment 

exercises, have even a remote suggestion tow- 
ard correcting mal-adjustments of the body 
structure. This fact places them in an 
entirely different class from osteopathy. 

To the end of properly adjusting the human 
machine when any of its parts are deranged 
and disease is present, the osteopathic phy- 
sician must possess an intimate knowledge of 
its structure. An intimate knowledge of the 
skeleton — its every bone, its individual peculi- 
arities, its relation to every other bone to 
which it is joined and to the body as a whole 
— a deep comprehension of the blood vessels 
— their devious course and their ultimate mi- 
nute ramifications, and the parts or organs to 
which they are distributed ; a mastery of the 
nerves — from their centers in the cord and 
brain to the most distant cell over whose funo« 
tion they preside ; a wide understanding of all 
the organs of the body, — their location and 
structure, as well as the evidences of their 
normal activity or symptoms of their disturb- 
ance — these are the sine qua non of the equip- 
ment of the osteopath. No surgeon needs to 
know anatomy more thoroughly than does the 
osteopathic physician. His knowledge of 
anatomy is his chart and compass and his 
cures will register in proportion to his ability 
to recognize and correct deranged anatom- 
ical conditions. He must not only be able to 
perceive the location of the maladjustment, 
he must know how it is misplaced to be 

69 



Osteopathy, the Science 

able to interpret its effects, and to bring 
definite mechanical principles to bear in 
replacing it. Since every moveable joint 
in the body is liable to misplacement, it 
is obvious that there can be a great range of 
maladjustments, both as to their location 
and character. Consequently there can be no 
such thing as routine treatment. Each case 
must be diagnosed and treated according to 
the causative condition present, and peculiar 
mechanical principles of treatment will apply 
to that particular case alone. The manipula- 
tive skill required of the osteopathic physi- 
cian must exceed that of the surgeon. Not 
only the large joints, but every joint in the 
body, no matter how deeply hidden beneath 
masses of muscles and tendons or how 
obscurely located, must be subject to the 
osteopath's deft hands. His sense of touch 
must be delicately educated so that no varia- 
tion from the normal in position or consist- 
ence of tissues can escape his notice. He 
must possess the delicate touch of the blind, 
not that he may read raised print which to the 
ordinary touch is meaningless, but to the end 
that he may read, to the minutest deviation 
from the normal, the structures of the body. 
No time limit can be set upon the length of 
an osteopathic treatment because in no two 
cases are the abnormalities the same. In one 
case the adjustment may be accomplished in 
a moment; in another case several minutes 

70 



of Healing by Adjustment 

of preliminary relaxing treatment may be 
required before adjustment can be made. It 
may be said, with reasonable modifications, 
that the less the time in which the adjustment 
can be made, the more skillful will be the 
treatment and the better the results. The 
advice of Dr. Still was to "find it, fix it and 
leave it alone"; this is the keynote of an 
osteopathic treatment. 

There is no knowledge or skill of value pos- 
sessed by any other school of healing that is 
not utilized by the doctor of osteopathy. The 
adjuncts or aids have their sphere of useful- 
ness but they are not osteopathy nor are 
masseurs and other practitioners of manual 
methods osteopaths. A stone mason is a use- 
ful member of society, but he is not a 
sculptor ; a house painter does a good service, 
but he is not a Raphael ; the engine wiper who 
keeps the engine rubbed and polished is doing 
well, but he is not adjusting its deranged 
parts. So the practitioners of these adjunc- 
tive methods are each good in their sphere, 
but they no more approach osteopathy than 
does stonecutting resemble sculpture, or 
house-painting, portraiture, or engine-wiping, 
engineering. 



n 



Osteopathy, the Science 



OSTEOPATHY IN DISEASES OF 
WOMEN. 

It is unnecessary to discuss here the pre- 
valence of those diseases peculiar to women. 
Whether it be due to some inherent weakness 
of their physical organization, the demands of 
modern society, unhygienic living, improper 
dress, or what not, the fact remains that 
women assuredly have more than their pro- 
portionate share of bodily ills to bear. From 
the time the girl lays aside the characteristics 
of the child, for thirty years or more, she is 
the prey not only to the ills common to the 
rest of humanity but also numerous other dis- 
orders peculiar to her sex. 

Special instruments devised for the 
examination and treatment of diseases of 
women have been found in the ruins of 
ancient cities. Specialties were practiced by 
the physicians of ancient Egypt and it is alto- 
gether probable that the treatment of the dis- 
eases peculiar to women was one of the 
earliest of these specialties. Cleopatra is 
said to have written books on the subject. 

So prevalent are these diseases today that 
their treatment comprises a large part of the 
physician's work. Every school of medicine 
recognizes their importance to the extent of 

72 



of Healing by Adjustment 

having special courses of instruction devoted 
to them. Their treatment is now one of the 
most profitable specialties. From the signal 
and pronounced failure of drugs, the treat- 
ment in medical hands has become almost en- 
tirely surgical; and surgery has become the 
most lucrative as well as the most abused field 
in medicine. Yet we have no complaint to 
make against legitimate surgery; there is 
nothing that can replace it, and its results 
when properly applied are marvelously bene- 
ficial. Still it is a patent fact that the 
medical world is today surgery mad. 

There are few professors in the medical 
schools today teaching how operations may 
be avoided or prevented ; but there is a host 
constantly employed devising new operations, 
each more daring than the last, and turning 
out scores of inexperienced operators. Each 
of these operators, to become expert, must 
have victims upon whom to operate. The 
surgical hue and cry is for brilliant and skill- 
ful operations, too often without sufficient 
consideration for the patient. 

There are many private and public surgical 
hospitals to be maintained, and to this end 
numerous operations are necessary. From 
the inherent nature of the case, a surgeon, 
who at best is only human, easily and uncon- 
sciously becomes so biased as to perceive only 
the operative side of many cases. It is amaz- 
ing for what trivial conditions the surgically- 

73 



Osteopathy, the Science 

minded doctor will advise operations, — oper- 
ations serious in nature and operations that 
offer no positive assurance of relief or cure. 
There is a strong tendency to regard the re- 
moval of a diseased organ as not only the 
proper but the exclusive way to cure, even 
though the disease be but slight. The physi- 
cian should realize that there are remedial 
agencies other than the knife, and should re- 
strict mutilating and sacrificial operations to 
their legitimate field. Surgery should be the 
court of last resort except in those cases in 
which it is clearly and unmistakably de- 
manded, for from the consequences of sur- 
gery there is no appeal. 

Osteopathy possesses resources so power- 
ful, so active, so reliable, that no woman 
should be subjected to the dangers and 
mutilation of an operation until its conserva- 
tive powers have been intelligently tested. A 
course of osteopathic treatment does not pre- 
sent the spectacular effect nor the thrill of a 
serious and dangerous operation ; it does not 
create the sympathy among one's friends, so 
desired by many, nor does it necessitate a 
long period of convalesence. It does, how- 
ever, eliminate the danger, shorten the time 
of recovery, and is altogether less objection- 
able. From its results there is still an appeal 
to the knife, if necessary, but after the knife, 
if unsuccessful, there is no recourse. "Yet 
such is the haste in the performance of this 

74 



of Healing by Adjustment 

work, a work properly of last resort, that our 
hospitals particularly have become the sacri- 
ficial temples of this new faith. Here women 
by the score, without previous attempt at 
treatment, are persuaded to undergo opera- 
tions dangerous to life and unwarranted by 
sound judgment. These operations are often 
followed by lifelong consequences to those 
who recover, consequences that are either 
carefully concealed or else carelessly with- 
held from their knowledge before consent is 
given." Too often promises of immediate 
cure are made, and after the operation the 
disappointed patient is informed that it re- 
quires at least a year to recover from the 
effects of even a successful operation. 

Diseases of women respond to osteopathic 
treatment promptly. Operations are avoided 
in many cases in which surgery had been de- 
clared necessary. The fact is that many 
operations are unnecessary. While the osteo- 
pathic colleges teach surgery as a valuable 
means of treatment in some cases, yet they 
oppose the tendency to operate for trivial and 
unnecessary causes, and they teach how these 
diseases may be cured in many instances 
without operations. The osteopathic physi- 
cian is qualified to decide when surgery is 
necessary and will advise it when it is best. 
Osteopathic treatment is safe, reliable and 
free from dangerous after-effects. 

Osteopathy secures its results in these 

75 



Osteopathy, the Science 

cases as in others, by the adjustment of de- 
ranged structure, by the effect upon the pelvic 
organs resulting from the manipulation of 
their appropriate centers, and by enforce- 
ment of all natural laws regulating the needs 
of the body. Displaced organs are replaced, 
and their natural supports are so toned up as 
to retain the organs in place. Congestions 
and inflammations are reduced by re-estab- 
lishing normal circulation. The symptom of 
pain is traced to its original cause and this 
osteopathy removes. Likewise, irregularities 
in the natural functions are corrected by 
finding and removing their causes. 

That part of the spine below the shoulders, 
about the waist-line, including sacrum and 
innominates, is the portion in which de- 
rangements are especially liable to affect 
the feminine organs and functions. Here the 
growing girl, nearly always more or less of a 
" torn-boy,' ' receives in active outdoor life 
and play many strains and misplacements. 
These are only of passing notice until she be- 
gins to bud into womanhood. It is at this 
period that these derangements begin to re- 
flexly disturb the new functions of woman- 
hood, functions that should be initiated as 
naturally as the bud develops into the rose, as 
painlessly as her figure develops into that of 
a woman, and as naivelv as her mind evolves 
its childish thoughts into mature considera- 
tions. 

76 



of Healing by Adjustment 

Any deviation from this harmonious pro- 
gram usually indicates some structural 
derangement along the nerve paths running 
from the governing centers of these organs ; 
or displacement of organ from strain or fall ; 
and it indicates further, that the corrective 
manipulation of the osteopathic physician, 
and not the knife of the surgeon is needed. 
The osteopathic physician can locate and re- 
move these malpositions of the tissues, set 
free nature's forces, and thus relieve the 
pains, the irregularities, and the delays inci- 
dent thereto. 

Associated with and incident to motherhood 
is a host of irritating strains and wide room 
for resultant accidents. As a preparation 
for these events, nothing is equal to osteo- 
pathy; it keeps the circulation good, renders 
active all the functions of the organs, and 
maintains the general health intact. Accord- 
ing to the related experiences of thousands of 
women who have been attended by osteo- 
pathic physicians during childbirth, it is an 
inestimable boon. It greatly lessens the pain, 
shortens the duration, and reduces the likeli- 
hood of accidents. 

Eesults follow childbearing that may or 
may not have been avoidable. We refer to 
inflammations, displacements and irregulari- 
ties, with all their attendant symptoms. For 
these the aid of the surgeon is usually 
invoked, though in many cases unnecessarily. 

77 



Osteopathy, the Science 

In most of these cases the application of 
osteopathic methods will in itself effect the 
cure. The same structural derangements 
that cause trouble for the near-grown girl are 
often the underlying cause for the disturb- 
ances occurring at childbirth. It may require 
the additional strain and cares of mother- 
hood to bring out or cause to become opera- 
tive the hidden weaknesses, resultants of 
spinal misplacements or strains received 
years before. 

At the close of the childbearing period 
comes another period dreaded by some 
women; yet it is one that should come as 
naturally and as tranquilly as autumn follows 
summer. It is during this period that cancer 
is most frequent; when this disease occurs 
there is only one remedy, — the knife — which 
if used 'Sufficiently early may save life. We 
acknowledge the limitation of osteopathy 
here, and the osteopathic physician in these 
cases will advise surgery. This period is 
often accompanied by many nervous disturb- 
ances and when these do occur they are 
enough to make the time one of dread and 
foreboding in any woman 's life. Many women 
look upon these distressing conditions as 
natural, and bear them without complaint. 
This is an entirely wrong view, for discom- 
forts at this time are unnatural and have a 
removable cause for their occurrence. When 
the organs involved have a perfect nerve and 

78 



Osteopathy, the Science 

blood supply these changes will occur without 
arousing the reflex miseries so commonly 
seen. Here again in removing all impedi- 
ments by adjusting the body structures, osteo- 
pathy records another victory over human 
infirmaties. 



79 



Osteopathy, the Science 



THE PROPHYLACTIC VALUE OF 
OSTEOPATHY. 

The greatest advances attained in medical 
science have occurred along the lines of the 
prevention of diseases. Improved hygienic 
and sanitary conditions, will in time, prac- 
tically eradicate yellow fever and cholera 
from among civilized nations. Smallpox has 
ceased to be a scourge. Malaria is being rap- 
idly stamped out ; typhoid is by no means the 
menace it once was ; there is a probability 
that tuberculosis will, at no distant time, be 
less a scourge than now. While these are 
achievements that can be recorded, it is at the 
same time true that some of the most virulent 
and incurable diseases are increasing. 

In its endeavors toward the prevention of 
diseases the medical profession has in the 
main considered the welfare of the mass of 
society, and has neglected the immediate con- 
ditions affecting the prevention of disease in 
the individual. This assertion is not intended 
as a harsh criticism, but is merely stated for 
its value as a fact. Osteopathy, while it en- 
dorses and approves all that has been done 
for the mass of the people, at the same time 
meets the needs of the individual and makes 
a personal, an individual, application of the 
principles of prevention. 

80 



of Healing by Adjustment 

Municipalities, corporations, and indi- 
vidual enterprises employ inspectors of vari- 
ous kinds in their business affairs to pre- 
vent pecuniary or vital disasters. There are 
building inspectors, fire inspectors, boiler in- 
spectors, and auditors ; every line of efficient 
business employs experts to see that its af- 
fairs proceed to the end of efficiency and to 
the elimination of danger and disaster. This 
is wise ; but such wisdom is merely a stepping- 
stone to the most important and commanding 
of all economic wisdom, — we refer to the in- 
spection of the human machine, to the end 
that all its parts may occupy their proper 
positions, and that all its functions may be 
properly performed, and that the most price- 
less of all possessions, health, may be con- 
served. Many of the weaknesses, the disease 
tendencies, and the small beginnings of dis- 
ease could be located in this way, removed in 
their incipiency, and grave troubles be pre- 
vented. 

A thorough examination by a competent 
osteopathic physician, the body inspector, 
would discover the weak spots, the places of 
least resistance; and their correction and 
restoration could be speedily accomplished. 
This would be individual and personal appli- 
cation of the principles of disease-prevention 
indeed, and it would afford the truest health 
insurance. Osteopathic physicians are daily 
treating patients for the results of strains or 

81 



Osteopathy, the Science 

injuries acquired in former years. These 
strains or injuries have in the intervening 
time caused diseases, often with permanent 
tissue changes and incurable after-effects, 
which might easily have been prevented had 
the injury been properly cared for immedi- 
ately after its production. For example, a 
person with a lesion reflexly affecting the 
kidneys, could have it removed and, as a re- 
sultant, escape Bright 's disease; or the re- 
moval of lesion affecting the vaso-motor cen- 
ters would prevent that modern bete noir, 
high blood pressure; or the correction of a 
lesion affecting the stomach and bowels, 
would forestall disease from these vital 
organs. Such examinations would not only 
lead to the relief of existing troubles but 
would remove a great part of the liability to 
others, would increase bodily and mental effi- 
ciency, make life a joy, add years to one's 
life, and life to one's years. 

It is a philosophic truism that, "coming 
events cast there shadows before." These 
shadows are often the minute tissue derange- 
ments that are to be located only by the skill- 
ed fingers of the osteopathic physician, and 
interpreted only by his reasoned logic that, 
"mechanical derangements in the body 
machine are pregnant causes of diseases. ' ' A 
body machine with all its parts in perfect 
position, like an inanimate machine, is in a 
condition to withstand the enormous amount 

82 



of Healing by Adjustment 

of wear and tear incident to its daily duties. 
Derange one part, ever so little, and you have 
started a destructive tendency, that if uncor- 
rected, may lead to wreckage and the scrap- 
heap. If the presence of the derangement 
be appreciated, and if it be removed before 
the damage is too great, the human machine, 
with its wonderful recuperative powers may 
resume its original state of perfection, and 
the wreck and the junk-pile will be escaped. 
Often the hustling business man gives down 
suddenly and unexpectedly. On examination 
it is found that there have been in operation 
for years causes, minute beginning of disease 
that have so reduced his resistance and 
vitality that he gave way under some slight 
strain, through which he should have passed 
unharmed. These slight and insidious 
causes acting for a long time have broken the 
man's health, as the single straw is said to 
have broken the camel's back. 

In infectious diseases there must be a 
primary cause antedating the germ invasion. 
Something must have reduced the vitality and 
resistance of the affected tissues before the 
ever-present germs could have become active. 
The uniformity with which the osteopathic 
physicians find similar spinal derangements 
in the majority of cases of typhoid, pneu- 
monia, tuberculosis, appendicitis, and other 
diseases, leads to the inevitable conclusion 
that such spinal derangements, by decreasing 

83 



Osteopathy, the Science 

vitality and thus allowing germ invasion, are 
in themselves the primary causes of these dis- 
eases. Had these spinal conditions been rec- 
ognized and corrected, the liability to such 
diseases would have been correspondingly re- 
duced. The osteopathic profession does not 
claim that disordered spinal conditions are 
the sole and only agencies lowering vitality 
and permitting germ infection; but they do 
claim that in a host of cases a disordered 
spine is the primary agency to this result. 

As public hygiene and sanitation have done 
much for the masses in preventing diseases, 
so personal hygiene by removing obstacles to 
the free flow of the vital fluids and forces, can 
do much toward preventing diseases in the 
individual. Many people now go to the 
dentist periodically as a means of oral 
prophylaxis. This should be done in order to 
preserve the teeth, and through them the 
general health. Yet the possibilities of harm 
from this source are insignificant as 'com- 
pared to the possibilities of harm arising 
from disturbed and neglected mechanical con- 
ditions in the human body-machine. When 
this claim is properly appreciated, the osteo- 
path will be visited periodically, so that the 
machine may be kept in order, that one's 
faculties and activities may be preserved 
alert. Then pain and sickness will be re- 
duced to a minimum, and the declining years 
will be years of ease of body and peace of 
mind. g4 



of Healing by Adjustment 






OSTEOPATHIC EDUCATION. 



The new treatment, osteopathy, finally be- 
came so popular that Dr. Still, its originator, 
was unable to care for all the patients who 
came to him, and he required assistants. 
Naturally he first taught to his sons the prin- 
ciples he had discovered and developed. The 
demand for practitioners continued to in- 
crease; others wished to learn the new phi- 
losophy of healing, and the organization of a 
school was forced upon Dr. Still. The 
services of the late Dr. William Smith were 
secured to teach anatomy and physiology, 
while Dr. Still surrendered sufficient time 
from his busy practice to teach the principles 
by which he had become the master of 
diseases. 

The first class of about twenty students 
began in November, 1892. This class was 
graduated the following year. The course 
of instruction was crude and incomplete, com- 
pared with that now required, but from that 
first attempt has evolved a course of instruc- 
tion that is second to none in thoroughness 
and admirable in its comprehensiveness. The 
first school of osteopathy was chartered in 
May, 1892. It was housed in an insignificant 
frame building of one story, only fourteen by 
twenty-eight feet in dimensions. 

85 



Osteopathy, the Science 

Our Colleges are now creditable institu- 
tions. Most of them have come to own 
their own magnificent buildings, and all 
equipped with the most up-to-date facilities 
for teaching the science of bodily structure 
and function, and the diseases to which this 
body is subject. These schools have the most 
modern laboratory equipment in all their 
departments, chemical, bacteriological, mi- 
croscopical, physiological, and pathological. 

We compare the osteopathic with the 
medical educational standards, not because 
of invidiousness, but merely because the 
medical standards are well enough known to 
render comparison significant. 

The time spent in acquiring a medical 
education is usually four terms of seven 
months each. The osteopathic course re- 
quires, as a minimum, four years of eight 
months each, and some of the schools give 
an even more extended course. ]$* 

The American Medical Association re- 
quires a minimum of four thousand hours 
work in the four terms. The American 
Osteopathic Association requires a minimum 
of four thousand, three hundred and twenty 
hours of work in the same number of terms, 
arranged as follows: 



86 



of Healing by Adjustment 

Curriculum Required by the American 
Osteopathic Association. 

Subject Hours 

Anatomy 600 

Physiology 300 

Biology 64 

Pathology 250 

Embryology 60 

Histology 160 

Chemistry 320 

Bacteriology 160 

Hygiene 45 

Dietetics 32 

Principles of osteopathy 80 

Osteopathic technic 160 

Hydrotherapy 16 

X-Ray 32 

Osteopathy, general diagnosis and 

treatment 1200 

Ear, nose, throat 60 

Eye 60 

Surgery 320 

Gynecology 145 

Obstetrics 150 

Jurisprudence 16 

4,320 

From this curriculum, adopted by the 
Associated Colleges of Osteopathy and 
approved by the American Osteopathic 

87 



Osteopathy, the Science 

Association at its annual meeting of 1916, it 
will be seen that the Colleges of Osteopathy- 
are well up to the Medical Colleges in the 
amount and character of work they give 
their students. A capable man or woman 
who receives this course of instruction, 
having first had at least a High School 
education or its equivalent, as is now the 
requirement for entrance upon the study of 
osteopathy, is fairly prepared to begin the 
struggle to prevent sickness and restore 
sick people to health. But less preparation 
than this is hardly sufficient. 

This seems to be the joint conclusion of 
the Educational Department of most States 
and of the osteopathic profession. Medical 
education is a means to an end — competency 
and safety for the public. Should not this 
fact make people careful in employing 
strange and unlicensed healers? 

The impression that the doctor of medicine 
is better educated to care for the sick or to 
give advice in matters of illness than the 
doctor of osteopathy is erroneous. The sub- 
jects taught in the two schools are practic- 
ally the same except that the osteopathic 
physician, disbelieving the curative power of 
drugs, devotes little study either to materia 
medica or to pharmacology. He substitutes 
for these the principles and practice of osteo- 
pathy. It does not follow, however, that the 

88 



of Healing by Adjustment 

same subjects are studied in the respective 
schools from the same view-peint, or that 
their relative importance or application is 
the same, for it is not. There are at least 
three points of radical departure from the 
drug system to be noted in the osteopathic 
system of healing : first, in the theory of the 
cause of diseases ; second, in their diagnosis, 
and third, in the manner of their treatment. 
For this reason subjects that may be common 
to the two schools by no means receive tha 
same method of consideration. 

The subject of anatomy is fundamental to 
both schools, and yet it is viewed quite differ- 
ently. To the doctor of medicine it is of 
general interest and of more especial import- 
ance because of its bearing upon surgery. 
The general practitioner of medicine can ad- 
minister his drugs quite successfully with but 
a poor knowledge of anatomy. But not so the 
osteopath. To him anatomy is of vital im- 
portance because the slightest deviation in 
anatomical structure is considered by him as 
a possible cause of disease. He must become 
thoroughly familiar, not only with the 
cadaver, but with the living body, so that vari- 
ations in its structure may be recognized. 
His ability to recognize and correct these 
anatomical derangements is the measure of 
the success of his treatment. 

The doctor of medicine considers germs as 
the active cause of diseases ; therefore bacter- 

89 



Osteopathy, the Science 

iology becomes to him of prime importance. 
The doctor of osteopathy gives bacteriology 
due consideration, but to him it is of less im- 
portance because he believes that germs are 
secondary causes in most diseases, the pri- 
mary cause being the condition which lessens 
tissue resistance and allows germ infection. 

In close relation to the subject of anatomy 
comes the consideration of osteopathic 
technic and tactile training. Tactile training 
really comes first in order. It has no place in 
the medical course, but in the osteopathic cur- 
riculm it is indispensable. By this training 
the sense of touch is so educated that the 
slightest irregularity in structure or position 
of the tissues is recognized and interpreted, 
as are the raised letters distinguished and 
read by the educated fingers of the blind. 
The medical doctor denies the existence of 
these minor derangements because his touch 
is not trained to appreciate them. It is just 
as logical for the man with sight to deny that 
the raised letters or the braille point of the 
blind have existence. To the osteopathic 
physician many conditions, meaningless to 
untrained fingers, stand out as signboards of 
disease and are of the utmost importance in 
his diagnosis and treatment. 

Osteopathic technic teaches a skillful execu- 
tion of the corrective manipulations which 
are themselves the distinctive feature of 
osteopathic treatment. It considers the 

90 



of Healing by Adjustment 

application of the proper mechanical laws by 
which the malpositions can best be adjusted. 
It calls for the most intimate knowledge of the 
joint structures, not only that their derange- 
ments may be recognized, but that the 
mechanics of their normal action and the 
mechanical principles involved in readjusting 
them may be observed. 

Pathology in the osteopathic schools em- 
braces all that is taught as pathology in the 
medical schools. It has in addition a more 
extended application and meaning than has 
ever been taught or appreciated by the medi- 
cal schools. This broader phase of pathology 
shows the effects of maladjustments upon 
near and remote tissues, how and to what de- 
gree they interfere with the activities of the 
organs with which they are directly or reflex- 
ly connected. These effects have been demon- 
strated by experiments and actual clinical re- 
sults. 

A course on the principles of osteopathy 
occupies the place given to materia medica 
and pharmacology in the medical schools. 
This is perhaps the most distinctive feature 
of the osteopathic training. In this depart- 
ment the underlying principles of the science 
are unfolded and elucidated, and their appli- 
cation to the cure of diseases demonstrated. 

Diagnosis includes all the latest medical 
methods and adds to them the methods that 
are peculiarly osteopathic. These are espec- 

91 






Osteopathy, the Science 

ially dependent upon tactile training, a fea- 
ture that is neglected in the medical course. 

It is not to be inferred that because the 
osteopathic physician does not administer 
drugs that he is unacquainted with their 
action. This is taught under the subject of 
toxicology. It is taught in order that the 
osteopath may be able to recognize the harm- 
ful and poisonous effects of drugs, and that he 
may institute proper treatment for them. 

The medical physician relies upon drugs to 
effect cure, and gives the scant attention to 
other curative methods. The osteopathic 
physician thoroughly investigates the adjunc- 
tive natural methods for treating diseases 
and makes use of all those that are efficacious 
and harmless. Since the call for osteopaths 
as family physicians is daily growing, a 
course is given in emergency treatment so 
that no condition may arise which the osteo- 
pathic physician is not as well qualified to 
handle as any other practitioner. 

The urgent and universal demand upon all 
physicians of the day is the demand for prac- 
tical experience. This a few of the medical 
physicians can get by hospital appointments. 
This need is supplied to the osteopathic 
student, before he graduates, by extensive 
clinical practice. Under the supervision of 
trained clinicians he is supplied not only with 
the theory but with the practical bedside 
experience, for here he meets and handles 

92 



of Healing by Adjustment 

those cases and emergencies that arise in 
every day experience. He leaves college 
thoroughly prepared to do the best thing pos- 
sible under all conditions of human suffering. 

It is obvious that throughout the entire 
course in the two schools, the medical and the 
osteopathic, the view-point and application 
differ on almost every subject. To the medi- 
cal doctor the body is a living laboratory in 
which his remedies effect chemical changes. 
To the doctor of osteopathy the body is no 
less a living laboratory, but it is primarily 
a vital mechanism, upon the structural 
integrity of which all vital activities are de- 
pendent. The one gives drugs (usually 
poisons) to normalize (?) vital activities; the 
other corrects structure. 

It must now be clear to the unprejudiced 
mind that the osteopathic physician is the 
peer of any. He makes his own diagnosis 
after an examination that is unique in its 
thoroughness. His knowledge of the body 
and of diseases is thorough and complete ; his 
manipulative skill is equal to that of the most 
dexterous surgeon. His education is thorough, 
comprehensive and practical. In addition to 
the latest medical ideas and theories regard- 
ing the causes, diagnosis and treatment of 
diseases he has his own distinctive and pecu- 
liar methods. He rejects only that part of 
medical teaching that has failed in results 
and applies instead of these unreliable meth- 

93 



Osteopathy, the Science 

ods others that are trustworthy, harmless, 
scientific and demonstrable. Osteopathy is 
not something less, but something more than 
medicine. 

There is no individual talent or accomplish- 
ment that can not find full expression in the 
study of osteopathy, and to men and women 
of proper preliminary education it offers one 
of the most inviting fields of worthy en- 
deavor. 



94 



of Healing by Adjustment 



OSTEOPATHIC ORGANIZATIONS 
AND PUBLICATIONS 

The first osteopathic organizations orig- 
inated from the necessity of self protection 
and the need of mutual helpfulness. 

The progress of osteopathy from its begin- 
ning was opposed by organized ' c medicine ' ' in 
the form of State Boards of Health, County, 
State and National Medical societies. The 
individual osteopathic physician was almost 
helpless against these powerful and influen- 
tial organizations, and when assailed in the 
courts would easily have been eliminated 
from the field of practice if his colleagues 
had not rallied to his assistance. In this way 
the first organizations were formed. From 
these local organizations, many of the State 
societies grew. 

A preliminary meeting looking to the es- 
tablishment of a National Osteopathic Asso- 
ciation was held at Kirksville, Mo., on Feb- 
ruary 6, 1897. The need of self protection 
was still present, but the dominant sentiment 
of this meeting was for the advancement of 
osteopathy and the establishment of its prin- 
ciples as the true system of healing. On 
April 19, 1897, a permanent organization 
known as the American Association for the 

95 



Osteopathy, the Science 

Advancement of Osteopathy was effected at 
Kirksville, Mo. Annual meetings have been 
held since this time. At the second meeting, 
June 29-30, 1898, there was an attendance of 
almost 200. 

In 1901 the name of this organization was 
changed to the American Osteopathic Asso- 
ciation which name it still bears. The Asso- 
ciation now has a membership of nearly 
4,000, representing the most progressive men 
and women of the profession. The attend- 
ance at the annual meetings has steadily 
increased until it now averages between 1,500 
and 2,000. 

The qualifications for membership in the 
American Osteopathic Association are grad- 
uation from a recognized osteopathic college, 
good professional and moral character, com- 
pliance with the laws and ethics of the asso- 
ciation and of the State medical practice 
Acts, and the payment of the annual dues. 

The American Osteopathic Association has 
the usual officers of organized bodies — a 
president, two vice-presidents, a secretary 
and a treasurer. These are elected annually 
by the members of the association. 

The business body of the association is a 
board of trustees, eighteen in number, one- 
third of whom are elected annually. They 
meet annually before and during the regular 
meetings of the association. In the interim 
between the meetings of the board of trus- 

96 



/ Healing by Adjustment 

:ees, the business of the association is con- 
ducted by its Executive Committee of seven 
chosen from the board of trustees. 

The association has the following standing 
committees or departments: Education, 
Publication, Finance and Development, and 
Public Affairs. 

The last named department has the fol- 
lowing bureaus under its direction: Public 
Health, Clinics, Public Education, Legisla- 
tion, State and National, Statistics, and 
Publicity. Special committees are appointed 
as circumstances may require. 

Every State now has a splendid organiza- 
tion of the profession dedicated to the work 
of raising the standing and usefulness of the 
practicians of osteopathy and to the protec- 
tion of the public from those not qualified to 
practice. In addition to this in every large 
city and many district organizations in the 
populous States there are such organizations 
holding frequent program meetings. More 
recently there have been organized clinics for 
the care of those who cannot pay for treat- 
ment. In some of the cities the profession, 
in addition to giving its services to this work, 
have contributed thousands of dollars to es- 
tablish and maintain these clinics. 

There are several private sanitariums con- 
ducted by osteopathic physicians, for it has 
been noted that sometimes cases which make 
poor progress while subject to the worries of 

97 



Osteopathy, the Science 

business or household cares make splendid 
recoveries under proper osteopathic care, 
where diet and habits can be regulated. One 
such institution for the exclusive care of men- 
tal and nervous cases has been established 
within the year and has already shown most 
remarkable results in supposedly hopeless 
conditions. 

The Associated Colleges of Osteopathy was 
organized in 1898. The object of this organi- 
zation was to regulate, unify and combine the 
reputable colleges of osteopathy in order to 
elevate the standards of osteopathic educa- 
tion. Attracted by the success of the gradu- 
ates of the legitimate colleges of osteopathy, 
many correspondence schools, diploma mills, 
and other specimens and pseudo schools were 
organized. In order to protect themselves 
and the public, the schools that were consist- 
ently and conscientiously endeavoring to 
teach thoroughly the true principles of osteo- 
pathy, originated this organization. It meets 
annually or oftener, and has been a powerful 
agency in developing the present high stand- 
ard of osteopathic education. 

At the annual meeting of the National As- 
sociation July 2-4, 1901, the necessity for an 
official organ was recognized. This need was 
met by authorizing the publication of the 
Journal of the American Osteopathic Asso- 
ciation. This journal was to be chiefly scien- 
tific in character. It was to contain the pa- 

98 



of Healing by Adjustment 

pers read before the association and the dis- 
cussions arising from them ; official communi- 
cations, contributed articles, items of general 
news interest to the profession, reports of 
legislative activities, reports of State asso- 
ciations, judicial matters, etc. 

The journal was originally a 48 page 
monthly publication. It has steadily grown 
until it now contains twice as many pages and 
takes front rank among the best scientific and 
professional journals of any school of prac- 
tice. 

The desirability of some medium to present 
all phases of osteopathic interest and activi- 
ties to the laity was recognized at the meet- 
ing of the National Association in 1913, and 
the publication of the Osteopathic Magazine 
was authorized. It is the official organ of the 
osteopathic profession to the laity. Its mis- 
sion is to deepen and broaden the common 
conception of osteopathy and its activities. 
It primarily presents the claims of osteo- 
pathy as a therapeutic agent, but in addition 
to this presents it in its relation to other 
therapeutic measures as well as to every 
movement or agency that tends to the better- 
ment of the human race. 

It discusses from the osteopathic viewpoint 
the questions of hygiene and sanitation as 
related to public health. It aims to aid in all 
reforms that contribute to the health and 
happiness of the people, and to oppose all 

99 



Osteopathy, the Science 

unjust and arbitrary exercise of authority in 
matter of health regulation, that violate in- 
dividual rights. It gives practical and use- 
ful advice in matters of diet as well as in 
personal hygiene and sanitation. It presents 
the distinctive contributions of osteopathy to 
the science, not only of curing but of prevent- 
ing disease. It serves the purpose of a useful 
and practical health magazine. It is pub- 
lished from the general offices of the associa- 
tion at Orange, N. J. The subscription price 
is $1.00 per year. The Association also pub- 
lishes several high class health brochures, 
viz: "Why I go to the Osteopath," "That 
Machine You Call Your Body," ''Childhood, 
the Period of Preparation," etc., copy of 
any one of which may be had by sending 
five cents for postage to the above address. 

Besides these magazines there are several 
others, privately owned, with circulation 
running to many thousand copies monthly. 

Some score or more of osteopathic text- 
books have been written and published by 
members of the profession both for use of 
the student in college as well as for the phy- 
sician in the field. These cover the subjects 
of Anatomy, Physiology and Surgery from 
the osteopathic viewpoint, as well as many 
works based on practical experience as in the 
treatment of certain diseases, as diseases of 
children, the peculiar diseases of women, as 
well as the field of general practice. 

100 



of Healing by Adjustment 



THE PRESENT LEGAL STATUS OF 
OSTEOPATHY 

The laws regulating the practice of the 
Healing Art, prior to the discovery of osteo- 
pathy, had been framed either directly by the 
doctors of medicine or through their influ- 
ence. These laws gave to organized medi- 
cine autocratic powers. Osteopathy originat- 
ing as it did after the passage of these laws 
had no legal status. As soon as it began to 
be generally practiced, the medical profes- 
sion invoked the aid of the existing laws, 
those of its own making, to suppress it. The 
public had no where appeared against it, but 
always in its favor. The conception of the 
cause of disease and the form of treatment 
were so radically different that there could 
be no confusion of the two systems by the 
public, so that the opposition by the medical 
organizations took on a not disinterested 
aspect. So different is the system, and so 
biased the medical profession, that after 
more than twenty years of successful oste- 
opathic practice most medical men ridicule 
the idea of minute vertebral derangements 
and their operation as a cause of disease and 
of their correction as the logical cure of 
disease. 

101 



Osteopathy, the Science 

Many osteopathic physicians were arrested 
for practicing "Medicine" without a license 
and were haled before prejudiced medical 
boards for trial. These boards at once as- 
sumed all of the powers of the judiciary and 
became prosecutors, witnesses, jury and 
judges. The rank injustice of such arrests, 
their obvious animus and the farcical nature 
of such trials were apparent to all thinking 
people. 

Unable to secure a fair hearing of their 
cause before the medical autocracy, the osteo- 
paths appealed to the public sense of justice. 
They asked the aid of the people in securing 
the passage of just and equable laws that 
would guarantee them the pursuit of their 
practice without molestation. 

Against the attempt to pass such laws, 
organized medicine presented the most deter- 
mined opposition, so that in several States 
the passage of such laws as would free the 
osteopaths from the domination of medical 
influence was prevented for years. 

Many people of national prominence volun- 
teered to testify to the merits of osteopathy 
and to plead its cause. The osteopathic phy- 
sicians have never asked for special privi- 
leges, but have merely desired to develop and 
grow unhampered by the interference of an 
antagonistic school of practice. They have 
made more rapid progress in scientific and 
educational development than any other sys- 

102 



of Healing by Adjustment 

tern of treatment, and claim as their right 
the opportunity to continue such advance- 
ment to meet their own needs. 

Osteopathic legislation has made great 
progress, yet it is not all that we desire. Our 
ideal is for each State and country to have 
an independent board of examination and 
registration for osteopathic physicians, and 
for osteopathy to have equal legal recogni- 
tion with other systems of practice. 

In the following twenty-one States this 
ideal has been attained: Arkansas, Con- 
necticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, 
Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, 
North Dakota, North Carolina, Pennsyl- 
vania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, 
Saskatchewan. 

The following States have osteopathic 
members on the regular medical boards of 
examiners: California, Colorado, Arizona, 
Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Okla- 
homa, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, New 
York, New Jersey, Washington, Wisconsin, 
Wyoming. 

Four States have osteopathic committees 
or especially appointed representatives act- 
ing with the medical boards of examiners: 
Ohio, Delaware, Rhode Island, West Vir- 
ginia. 

In four States, osteopaths are examined 
and licensed by the regular medical boards: 

103 



Osteopathy, the Science 

Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, South Carolina. 

Osteopathy is exempted from the medical 
act in Maine and New Hampshire. 

Three States permit osteopathy but do 
not authorize nor prohibit its practice: 
Mississippi, Nevada, District of Columbia. 

Osteopathic physicians have secured favor- 
able laws in several of the provinces of Can- 
ada and are practicing without molestation 
in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Swe- 
den, France, Germany, Mexico, Italy, South 
America, Japan, India, Africa, and the 
Hawaiian and many other islands. 

Osteopathy has not only proven its worth, 
but its superiority as a system of treatment; 
it has demonstrated its ability to more suc- 
cessfully cope with the needs of the sick than 
any other practice; it has shown that it pos- 
sesses all that is of proven value in other 
methods together with its own distinctive 
merits, and we entreat of all lovers of fair- 
ness and justice to aid us in securing such 
legislation as will free us from the interfer- 
ence of prejudiced influence. 

It is just as detrimental to progress and 
freedom in the healing art for one shcool of 
practice to have supreme power as it would 
be in the religious world for one sect to be 
dominant. 



104 



of Healing by Adjustment 

IMITATIONS OF OSTEOPATHY 

The fundamental principles of osteopathy 
are, and have always been, THE ADJUST- 
MENT of the structures of the human body, 
more particularly those of the spine because 
the spine offers more opportunities for mal- 
adjustment than any other part of the body. 

The application of these principles has 
been remarkably successful in the treat- 
ment of diseases, in many instances mar- 
velous and spectacular results have been 
secured. Because of this a number of im- 
itations and counterfeits of osteopathy 
have arisen. 

The poineers in the development of 
osteopathy had two courses open to them. 
One to develop osteopathy into a scientific 
and thoroughly dependable school of prac- 
tice with the highest standards for its 
physicians; the other to heed the voice of 
commercialism, expedience and greed and 
allow it to degenerate into a low class 
money making scheme and to send out as 
many ill-trained and inefficient practitioners 
as they could in the least possible time to 
prey upon an unsuspecting public. 

In the beginning a spirit of avarice and 
cupidity did possess a few and manifested 
itself by the organization of a few short 
course colleges and correspondence schools. 
This spirit was not allowed to hamper the 

105 



Osteopathy, the Science 






profession nor to prevent its development 
along the highest scientific and educational 
lines. The profession soon purged itself of 
these renegades by declaring a relentless 
war upon such institutions. The sole pur- 
pose of these institutions was to make money 
out of gullible students who were made to 
believe that the mere knowledge of a few 
movements makes one an osteopathic phy- 
sician or at least something just as good. 
Disowned by the osteopathic profession 
whose basic principles they had purloined, 
but whose name they were not allowed to 
use because of the high standards estab- 
lished by it, some of these coined new names 
for the principles of osteopathy and under 
these the fakirs and charlatans have multi- 
plied and the spirit of greed and commer- 
cialism has had full rein. They have suc- 
ceeded in many instances in deluding some 
well intentioned individuals into the belief 
that they could acquire the requisite knowl- 
edge to treat and care for diseases of the 
human body by a course in correspondence 
or by a resident course of a few weeks or at 
most a few months; a fraction of the time, 
in fact, that is necessary to qualify in 
plumbing, brick-laying, carpentering, or 
any similar trade. 

The osteopathic profession has consist- 
ently demanded and maintained high ed- 
ucational qualifications for all who would 

106 



of Healing by Adjustment 

enter it. It demands of its practitioners an 
exhaustive and complete knowledge of the 
structures of the human body as a pre- 
requisite to its adjustment and a similarly 
thorough knowledge of diseases, their mani- 
festations and the changes they produce in 
the tissues, as a preliminary to their care. 
Besides this, manipulative skill is necessary 
and this is impossible without a knowledge 
of the anatomy of the part to be manipu- 
lated. Adjustment may be secured in two 
ways, by skillful painstaking and by brute 
force. A shoulder or a hip may be dis- 
placed or out of adjustment and may be set 
or adjusted skillfully and without damage 
or it may be forced in place by brute force, 
regardless of the accompanying damage. 
In the more delicate parts, as the spinal 
joints, attempted adjustment without ade- 
quate knowledge of the structure may cause 
severe and irreparable injury. 

It is readily seen that the acquisition of 
the necessary knowledge to be an osteo- 
pathic physician is no "correspondence 
school" matter but is a serious task of four 
years and an amount of work that exceeds 
that of many of the class "A" medical 
schools. Less than this is inadequate to 
prepare one to care for human ailments, and 
less than this cannot? guarantee the protec- 
tion to the public against inefficient and 
dangerous practitioners. These are the 

107 



Osteopathy, the Science 

requirements of the American Osteopathic 
Association and membership in this body is 
an endorsement that the holder thereof is 
the peer of any physician of any school of 
practice. 

Of these so-called schools who seek to 
profit by the reputation that osteopathy 
has earned may be mentioned "spinology," 
"endopathy," "naprapathy," "menchano- 
terapy," "neuropathy," "spondylotherapy," 
"chiropractic" and perhaps others as new 
ones seem to be born daily. 

"Spondylotherapy" is merely a tail to the 
medical kite and is practiced for the most 
part by medical doctors. "Chiropractic" is 
of all these counterfeits the most arrant. 
The chief requirement it makes of its grad- 
uates is the price of a diploma which may 
run from a few dollars to a few hundred. 
Requirements of preliminary education, if 
discussed, are merely the ability to read and 
write and the correspondence courses are 
recommended.* 

These imitators shrewdly though fraud- 
ulently claim that their methods are funda- 
mentally different from osteopathy and 
improvements upon it. This claim is 
absurd. The mere change in the design of 
a table for treating a patient or a particular 
movement in adjusting an abnormality can 
not change a principle. One might as well 

"Harper's Weekly, April 3, 1915. 

108 



of Healing by Adjustment 

argue that a change in the design of a chair 
or a different movement in pulling a tooth 
changed the principles of dentistry The 
chief reason for such a claim is that they do 
not wish to brand themselves as counter- 
feits. Again in nearly all of the States 
there are laws maintaining high standards 
for osteopathy. To the lowest of these 
standards this class can not reach, therefore, 
they claim to be different so as to escape the 
operation of just laws for the protection of 
the public against ignorant pretenders, who 
if they do not actually injure the body, as 
has often been done, may prevent the pa- 
tient from receiving skillful and efficient 
treatment. 

The care of the sick is a responsibility that 
should not be lightly entered into and 
certainly not without due preparation. 

One would scarcely trust the care of an 
automobile to a chauffeur whose training 
consisted of a few correspondence school 
lessons, yet there are some who have sub- 
mitted their bodies to the ministrations of 
these self-styled "doctors" whose education 
and training is much less than that of the 
average mechanic. We would not deny that 
there may have been instances in which 
they have done good, for the principles of 
osteopathy, even though crudely and igno- 
rantly applied, are potent for good. This 
fact by no means implies that they are safe 

109 



Osteopathy, the Science 

and reliable caretakers of the body in the 
crisis of disease. 

The safety of the sick demands that those 
who profess to heal should not only know 
what to do but what not to do. Greater 
danger often arises from doing the wrong 
thing than from ignorance of the right thing 
to be done. The human body is too deli- 
cate, complicated and important a mech- 
anism to be tampered with by any class 
of uneducated impostors. 

These facts are given that the reader may 
be able to discriminate between the true 
and the false, the genuine and the imita- 
tion. The suggestion is made that before 
submitting to the treatment of any doctor, 
real or so-called, that his credentials be 
investigated and his record inquired into. 
This is merely the part of wisdom and 
safety. 



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